HOTD: Adding One More to the Story
by beautifullyinsane31
Summary: Yuki Hatsune was living with her friend, Hisashi, without anyone knowing. In fact, the girl was full of secrets. Despite what Takashi thinks, he doesn't know any of them. But what better way to find out than to be stranded together in order to survive? TakashixOC - Rating May Change - Yuki in the Cover
1. Spring of the Dead

_This is the way the world ends,_

_Not with a bang but a whimper._

-T. S. Eliot

* * *

The night before all the madness started and the world seemed to be coming to an end, I had stayed up late. Hisashi Igou, my roommate and best friend, had fallen asleep on our couch an hour into the movie we were watching and I stayed up to finish it. Sadly, after the movie, I still couldn't sleep, so I spent most of the night playing Fruit Ninja on my iPhone and listening to music. It never occurred to me, not once, that the very next day, my life would change entirely.

**Hallway on the Second Floor, Fujimi High School; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day 1:33 pm**

With a long yawn, I stretch out my arms, trying to wake myself up. After a few seconds, I lean back against the window paneling and enjoy the warm breeze outside. My long, white hair is having problems staying out of my face, however, and I repeatedly try to make a rather persistent strand stay behind my ear. Out of irritation, I pull it back into a long pony tail, not in the mood to deal with it.

"Hey, Yuki." Someone says, surprising me, "Skippin' again?"

I turn around and come face to face with Morita, a second year. His blonde hair is entirely smoothed back except for the middle, which is spiked up. His green eyes somewhat match my own, only a few shades darker, and don't have the development of bags like I probably do. His black uniform jacket is open, showing a green-checkered shirt, with the collar bent down.

"You too, Morita?" I ask, not surprised in the least.

He grins, rubbing his head with his hand, "Ahh, you know me. Classrooms aren't my thing when it's this close to the end of the week. What 'bout you?"

I smile a little, turning back to the warm, outside air, "I didn't get much sleep last night."

He chuckles a little, "Hisashi keep you up all night?"

I sigh, resting my head on my hands, "Morita, you know Hisashi is dating Rei. Not to mention I don't like him like that."

"'Course not." He smirks, "You like Takashi, don't you?"

My eyes widen and my face heats up as I look at him, "How did you-"

I'm cut off by his laughing, clutching his stomach as he doubles over, "You do! That's priceless!"

"Shut up!" I hiss, turning completely to him, "If you tell anyone, I swear I'll kill you."

"Okay, okay." He says between breaths, "But Takashi? Seriously? That's just too great."

Cursing at the red staining my pale cheeks, I turn completely away from him, staring back out the window.

"Oh, come on, Yuki, don't be like that." Morita pleas, still letting a few chuckles escape, "If it makes you feel better, I'll let you see Master Morita's Top Secret List of Fujimi Academy's Triple-A Grade Hot Girls!"

I glance at him over my shoulder.

Master Morita's Top Secret List is simply a book that he keeps with him with the top 5 hottest girls (in his and his friends' opinion) that go to our school. Not a lot of people know about it, though, (note the _Top Secret_ in the title) so it's pretty much worthless.

But I like hearing what crazy scenarios they come up with – even if they are perverted and impossible.

"There was a new girl added." He says, knowing that'd probably do the trick, "And you'll never guess who it is."

"Fine." I grumble, defeated.

He pulls out a small, brown spiral notebook and flips it open near the middle. Below a list of five girls is a dark line, probably from a pencil or pen, with the new list.

∙**1. Saeko Busujima – hope to see her in nothing but an apron and a thong**

∙**2. Yuki Hatsune – hope to see **_**any**_** of her skin (and feel it… it has to be soft!)**

∙**3. Saya Takagi – hope to get her to finally say yes to me**

∙**4. Rei Miyamoto – get her alone without **_**anything**_** on**

∙**5. Yuuki Miku – I just want some of that!**

I roll my eyes, "Who put Yuuki in there? You know she's a slut, right?"

He winks, "That's why she's in there. Experience has to make it better, right?"

I chuckle a little, "Still. Nice list. Why am I on it though?"

"Because you're hot." He says, smiling as the blush creeps on his cheeks, "Haven't you noticed all the guys talking to you lately?"

I raise an eyebrow, but decide to laugh it off instead, "I think you're losing your eyesight, Morita. But thank you nonetheless."

"Any time, Yuki." He grins, holding that adorable, boyish look, "Just don't let your hopes down, okay? I'm sure Takashi'll get over Rei in no time and realize your there with him."

I smile slightly as I look out the window one last time, but the smile's off, and I'm sure he knows it, "Yeah. Of course."

"Whelp, I'm going to hide in the dorms for a while." He says, patting my shoulder, "Go to the roof and get some sleep, 'kay? I'm sure you'll feel better after a nap."

I nod, "Actually, I think I will. See you later, Morita."

"See ya."

I wonder down the hall, not bothering to shut the window. The school was feeling stuffy anyway – someone would thank me for it later. I can still smell of cherry blossoms in the hallway and it makes me smile, lifting my spirits a little.

My flats click against the tiled floors as I stepped out a glass door and onto the stairwell outside, the air warming my skin and giving me light goosebumps.

"Ugh, that's so stupid!" A familiar voice sneers at the top of the flight of stairs.

Saya Takagi.

I look up and see Takashi and Saya looking at each other. Takashi, who looks slightly depressed, is leaning against the wall, one hand on the railing. His dark brown hair is blowing in the light wind, ruffling a little. His face is blank with a hint of annoyance, but his brown eyes show slight hurt.

He and Rei must have gotten into it.

Saya is standing in front of him with her hands on her hips. Her pink hair is pulled into two, long pigtails, tied by white ribbons. Bother her face and sharp, orange eyes are annoyed, which bothers me.

"What do you want?" Takashi asks, neither of them noticing me yet.

"Every time you have to face something you don't like, you always come to this stupid staircase. It's like your own little pity corner! Look at you!" She scoffs in disgust, ignoring his question and bending down as if she has to get to his level, "Good God! The first semester had just started. How are you ever going to make it through the year?"

Takashi glances at her boobs that she probably purposely left showing, before avoiding her altogether, looking out to the courtyard over the railing of the staircase, "I could say the same to you. The fifth period isn't even over yet."

She straightens up, "It's okay because I'm a genius." She says almost with a sigh, flipping her hair behind her, "Unlike you, who got into this school by dumb luck."

"Those are pretty harsh words." I say casually, strolling beside Takashi, "Maybe you'd like to rephrase them?

Both Saya and Takashi look at me with surprise, but I see fear flash in Saya's eyes before she has time to cover it up.

"Hatsune." She greets curtly.

We have a staring contest for a few moments. Her eyes narrow at me, probably weighing the chances of me doing something while tired (seeing as how my eyes probably had some form of bags under them), then start to scan my body. With great discomfort, I try not to show how uncomfortable I am under her scrutinizing gaze, my face remaining cold and blank. Something sparks in her eyes and I look down, only realizing that my right legging is slashed just below my skirt, the fabric hanging over itself and revealing the thick and long scar across.

Why didn't Morita tell me that my legging was cut? It obviously happened in my disagreement with Tsunoda (and I use the word disagreement _very_ lightly), so that was before I met up with him – it would've been like that when he talked to me.

I mentally smack my head.

Because Morita never looks past the belt, no matter how big of a pervert he makes himself out to be – he had respect for girls.

"Get into another fight, Yuki?" She sneers, obviously think that she'd won, "By the looks of your leg, you can't afford any more."

Takashi furrows his brows in confusion and follows her gaze, eyes landing on my exposed outer thigh, "What the hell is that?" He gapes.

I growl and step towards Saya, "You have no right to say anything about that."

Fear flashes in her eyes and she takes a step back, trying to seem stronger than what she is.

"Whatever." She says, acting bored, "You're even more stupid than him."

I glare at her retreating form, completely aggravated. Half my mind tells me to run after her, but the other half is tell me she's right – this was the third day in a row that I'd only gotten two hours of sleep, I couldn't afford to attack anyone.

"Hey Yuki, your leg…" Takashi trails off, not sure how to ask.

I turn to him with a fake smile, hoping he won't notice my nervousness, "Don't worry about it. They're just simple cuts and scratches from being so clumsy. You know me, always running into things and falling down."

He smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes, "You never change."

I laugh uneasily, rubbing the back of my head.

Suddenly, we hear something clanking against metal, causing us both to look at the entrance gates. An adult man is banging his entire body against it, arms stretched directly out in front of him, like he's blind and trying to get in.

"Who's that?" Takashi asks softly, mostly talking to himself, "A trespasser?"

I shrug and lean over the railing a little, trying to get a better look.

Ms. Hayashi, the school's ping pong advisor, along with Mr. Teshima, the main Phys. Ed teacher, and two other teachers I can't make out, walk over to the gate. I watch with interest as they start talking to the man. Mr. Teshima, being the hard-ass he is, grabs hold of the strange guy's suit, pulling him against the gate roughly. There's a short pause before the man suddenly backs off, grabbing Mr. Teshima's arm and digging his teeth into his forearm.

"Oh my god." I breathe, gravitating towards Takashi unconsciously as Mr. Teshima falls backwards with a painful scream.

Takashi is perpetually still, watching the madness without even a flinch.

Mr. Teshima rolls back and forth, screams of agony echoing all around us. It takes only mere seconds before his painful cries turn into groans, then he's silent all together.

The other three teachers stare at the body, no one moving.

Then, Ms. Hayashi kneels over him, what seems like relieve on her face.

The relief is quickly gone as Mr. Teshima grips her shirt, ripping a few buttons and revealing her black lace bra, and takes a chunk out her neck as if it's a taco from Taco Bell instead of an innocent woman's flesh.

"What the hell?" Takashi says, staring in wide-eyed shock at the scene.

My eyes are just as wide as his as I back away from the railing, trying to process what just happened. But the only thing that's running through my mind is an intense need to get as far away from those teachers as possible.

Before I can do or say anything, Takashi grabs my hand, "Come on, Yuki. We need to get the hell outta here."

I nod, agreeing with him without a doubt, and try to keep up as he darts up the stairs and into the hallway on the third floor.

We run all the way to a door on the other side of the hallway, two doors away from the other staircase, and Takashi slams the sliding door open, causing the class to look in our direction.

Rei, who had looked to see who it was, glares at our hands, looking as if she'd been betrayed.

"Komuro, you and Ms. Hatsune couldn't be happy with just skipping my class?" The teacher scolds, but neither Takashi nor I are listening as he lets go of my hand and walks over to Rei.

"Come with me." He orders, grabbing her wrist and yanking her out of her seat, "We're gonna get out of here."

Her face reddens as she stares at him in shock and I feel the familiar jealousy prick at me, "Wha-?"

Saya shoves herself out of her seat, looking beyond pissed, as everyone listens to what Takashi and I have to say.

Calmly, as Hisashi always is, Hisashi walks over to Takashi, "Dude, what are you doing?"

"People just got killed by the front gate." Takashi says, looking annoyed, "No bullshit."

Hisashi's eyes widen, "Are you serious?"

I look at him incredulously, "You don't actually think we'd decided it'd be fun to make all that up, do you?"

Hisashi looks at me and sees the seriousness on my face. I can see all the doubt wiping from his features.

"Jesus!" Rei yells, ripping her arm from Takashi's distracted grip, "What's going on! I can never understand-!"

_Slap._

I cringe at the familiar sound, which Hisashi notices.

"Yuki?" He asks quietly, not wanting the other to hear, "Yuki, its okay." He says soothingly, "No one's going to hurt you anymore."

I take a deep breath, trying to clear my mind of the images of angry grey eyes and the sound of painful screams out of my head, and nod, "I'm okay."

He smiles, but notices the rips in my leggings, "Damn." He mutters, "When did this happen?"

"This morning, sometime after lunch." I say, recalling the argument I had with Tsunoda.

"Has anyone seen them?"

I nod, "Takashi, but I told them they were from my clumsy self and he bought it."

He chuckles a little at that, ruffling my hair, "Of course he did – How can he not? You're worse than a dog trying to walk on two legs."

I cross my arms, pouting a little, when I hear Takashi growl.

"Come on." He barks at Rei, this time turning on his heel and running out the door.

Hisashi, me, and Rei all follow after him (in that order too) and down the hallway.

"Just tell me what's going on!" Rei pleas.

"There was someone at the front gate." I start, not slowing my pace in the least, "And a few teachers went to check it out. All of a sudden, the person at the gate digs into the PE's teacher arm like it's a cheeseburger and just when we thought Mr. Teshima was dead, he comes back to life and attacks Ms. Hayashi. Now they're both attacking the others."

"That's insane!" She argues, "Why would they kill each other!"

"Well, why don't you go down there and ask them!" I shoot back, aggravated.

She falls silent, as does everyone else.

After a flight of stairs, Hisashi starts leading the way through the second floor hallway, jerking open a supply closet.

"What? You forgot something?" Takashi asks in disbelief.

"If what you and Yuki are saying is true, then we'll need weapons, right?"

Everyone's silent as he breaks off the end of a push-broom, leaving a spiral, metal point on the end, and hands it to Rei, "Here Rei."

Takashi picks up a metal bat from a bag near the supply closet, "What about Yuki?"

"She can fight pretty well…" Hisashi muses, but I can tell by the look in his eyes that he's not comfortable with the idea at all. So he shuffles through the closet, hunting for something else.

I hear a lot of metal scraping against metal before there's a _crack_ and he pulls out the aluminum pole that had been used to hang coats.

"Take this, Yuki. I'm sure you can find _some_ use for it."

I smile and am tempted to laugh, then the flashes of blood and Ms. Hayashi's face fills my mind and the laugh instantly fades.

"What about you, Hisashi?" Takashi asks, weighing the bat in his hand, trying to get use to the feel.

"I've got a black belt in Karate." He answers simply, "Now come on, we've got to get out of the school."

"Let's call the police." Rei suggests, "We can talk to my father."

"School rules are meant to be broken, right?" Takashi says, handing her his cellphone.

I smile a little, shaking my head. It's just like him to be carrying something like a cellphone just to irritate the teachers.

It rings a few times before Rei's eyes widen, "No way." She says quietly.

"What is it?" Hisashi asks, looking at her worriedly.

"110 is busy." She says in disbelief, "But that's impossible."

As if cued, the P.A. system comes on, the principle's voice vibrating through every classroom and hallway, "This announcement is for all the students: An emergency situation is taking place inside the school right now! All students must follow your teacher's instructions and evacuate! I repeat-"

"So they finally realized it, huh?" Takashi says, distracting me.

"Oh god…" Rei mumbles, as if she just now believes what we were saying.

There's a pause as the mic screeches and an eerie silence follows. I gulp, the sudden rush of blood from Ms. Hayashi's neck flashing in my mind. On instinct, I back into Hisashi. He wraps an arm around me in response, keeping an arm opened for Rei if she needs him, and looks down at me, surprised.

Not many people in school know of my living arrangements – that I'm living in Hisashi's house, just the two of us – mostly because I want to keep it a secret (the last thing I need is people questioning why I live with him and not my parents, the rumors people would spread, the things Rei and Takashi would find out…). But now, as I listen for the principle's voice to come back, the only thing I care about is getting this nightmare over and done with.

"Wha- Get away from me!" The principle shrieks. There's what sounds like groaning in the background and I bury my face in Hisashi's chest, trying to block out the screams. "Get away! Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhhh! Heeeeeelp! Heeeelgh-"

As his last cries gurgle out and the intercom goes dead, deathly silence fills the air. It's so quiet, a needle can be heard if I drop one to the floor. Then, as if everyone snaps back into it, the sound of frantic footsteps and loud screams reverberates everywhere, sending chills down my spine.

The students were panicking.

` "This way!" Hisashi yells, pulling away from me and heading further down the second floor hallway.

"Where are you going?" Takashi demands, "We've got to get out of here!"

He stops and turns to Takashi, "The building with classrooms is too crowded." He explains, his voice and face calm, "We need to go through the Management Building."

"Hisashi is right." Rei hisses, more venom in her voice than usual, "Shut up and do as he says."

"Alright, fine." Takashi says, struggling with something.

We run to the end of the hallway and open the door, walking onto the opened, bridge-like path that leads to the Management Building.

A few feet ahead of us, however, looking as if he's having a hard time standing up, is Mr. Wakisaka. His brown hair is smoothed over with grease like always, but his skin is a dark ash color, looking inhumanly grey. His eyes are completely taken over by white, only a small, disoriented grey dot in the middle, and his mouth and nose are dripping with blood. Just above his knee, there's a giant bite mark, showing straight through to the bone.

"That's Mr. Wakisaka." Rei says, eyes wide, "What's wrong with him? You don't think he'll try to stop us, do you?"

He shocks all of us by opening his mouth wider than humanly possible and letting out a roar, blood staining his teeth. At first, by the looks of how far he leans back, I think he's going to fall backwards. He looks like a ragdoll in a child's hands – completely unstable and flimsy. But then he straightens himself and leans forward, advancing towards Rei more quickly than I thinks possible.

She swats at him with her make-shift spear as if he's a fly, completely lost and confused, "Get away from me!"

Hisashi slashes the air with his hand as if to make an example, "Rei, stab him! Don't hold back!"

She stares at the weapon in her shaky hands meekly, like she doesn't know what to do, and Mr. Wakisaka grabs hold of it, pushing her to the ground. Something sparks in her eyes and they sharpen to a glare as she shoves him off of her, "Don't fuck with me!" She growls, "I'm the VP of the Martial Arts Club!"

She brings her weapon down on his shoulder, causing him to stumble a little before she lands a blow in his chest, the pointed end sticking out the other side with his limp body hanging above ground.

"Yes!" Takashi cheers next to me.

But he spoke too soon.

At first, I think it's just the wind ruffling his shirt, but by the third time, I'm sure it's not the wind – the guy is actually moving again! Lazily, his arm grabs hold of the spear and lowers his feet to the ground, giving him enough leverage to overpower Rei and smash her into the metal lining along the hallway.

"But I stabbed him in the chest!" Rei panics, "Why is he still moving!"

It's a question none of us can answer as Mr. Wakisaka attempts to get to Rei again, the pole still lodged in his heart.

Without much thought, I run over to her and land a single blow to his shoulder. With the pole still lodged in his chest – and my own weapon back with Takashi and Hisashi – I watch as it stumbles sideways, far enough for me to help Rei up quickly. But his recovery rate is flawless and within seconds, it's as if I hadn't kicked him at all.

"Damn." I mutter. I had expected (and kind of hoped) that the kick would work better, giving him as much damage as it had Tsunoda earlier today, but instead, it seems like I pissed him off more.

"Jesus Christ." Rei mumbles next to me, "Why won't he just die already?"

I don't have time to answer because Mr. Wakisaka is after us again, this time with a vengeance.

In order to keep the pear lodged in his chest from stabbing me, I grab it. He's a lot stronger than I originally thought and I have a hard time keeping it from cutting me.

Hisashi, in an attempt to help me, runs over to the deranged teacher, wrapping his arm firmly around his throat in a headlock.

Struggling, he pulls Mr. Wakisaka away from me, "Yuki, pull it out now!

I do as he says and yank it out, the sound of meat being ripped open making my stomach churn. Blood is on the broom stick, but none is pouring from his wound as I expect.

"Hisashi, get away from him!" Takashi commands, swatting at the air with his hands.

Hisashi simply smirks, brows drawn together in concentration as he man-handles Mr. Wakisaka, "Don't worry." He grunts confidently, "I can take him."

Without warning, his struggling stops and he stands still. Then, as if he was an owl in another life, he strains his neck, turning it entirely around. The skin on his neck is ripples, showing the actual damage, and I'm certain part of it is starting to chip away, like old paint.

"What the fuck!" Hisashi shouts.

The teacher's mouth opens wide, showing yellow liquid dripping down his mouth, and sinks his teeth into Hisashi's upper arm. Hisashi loses his hold on him and he turns entirely around, now holding Hisashi against his body as he digs his teeth in further.

"Get off him!" Takashi yells, running to Hisashi's aid and hitting Mr. Wakisaka repeatedly.

Rei lets out a cry as she charges at him from the other side, stabbing him in the stomach with her spear, "Just die already, damn it!"

Takashi backs away, eyes wide with a mixture of surprise and fear, "Oh no…" He says, "I knew it. He _is_ dead. He's dead but still moving!"

"What!" Rei shrieks.

They don't have time to argue about it. Whatever Mr. Wakisaka is, he's hungry for sure. With enough force to shatter the bone, he bites down harder, blood now dripping down Hisashi's arm. Hisashi throws his head back with a painful cry, teeth clenched.

Rei, at a lost for what to do and desperate to do something – _anything_ – to help Hisashi, drops her weapon and grabs the man's – thing's – arm, tugging helplessly at it.

"Takashi, Yuki, do something!" She demands, glaring at us, "Help him! Don't just stand there! Do something! DO SOMETHING WILL YA!"

Something snaps in me and I'm able to move again. Quickly, I dash passed Takashi and grab Rei's spear, heading for the trio. Clamping my eyes shut, I bring the wooden pole down on his head, effectively ending him as a threat. Blood is splattered all over the walkway and the four of us, slowing dripping down my cheeks. When I get enough strength to open my eyes, I see Mr. Wakisaka looking at me with blank, lifeless eyes (if you can even call the white orbs in his head eyes). He slumps forward, Hisashi's blood staining his teeth, and falls to his knees, landing on his face only a few centimeters from my feet.

My hands are trembling and I know I'm not breathing. With wide-eyes, I stare at the blood around the teacher's body, then trail to my white leggings that are now splashed with red. Hisashi tells Rei something – something about him being okay – but I don't catch any of it.

"Yuki." Takashi's voice snaps me out of it, causing me to jump.

Slowly, I drag my eyes away from the mess and look at him.

"Are you okay?" He asks, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I cringe away from his touch and he immediately retracts his hand.

"Yuki?" Hisashi is now in front of me, "Yuki?"

The obvious worry in their voices snaps me out of it. I take a deep breath and try to regain myself, practically forcing my hands to stop shaking.

"I'm fine." I say, voice cracking.

Before they can ask anything else, we hear glass breaking. Automatically, our heads turn to the source of the noise. Down below, a freshman girl lets out a shrill scream, yelling for another student to stop. I watch in horror as the student digs his teeth into her chest, the girl letting out another hopeless scream that makes my ears ring.

"We can handle one of them, but there's no way we can…" His voice trails off, watching the devastation below as more and more students are eaten alive.

"The roof." Hisashi says, covering his wound his other hand.

"The roof?" Rei repeats with a questioning look on her face.

"We should barricade ourselves until help arrives." Hisashi explains, "Besides, on the roof we can see what's going down."

I bite my lip, unsure.

"What is it, Yuki?" Takashi asks.

"It's just…" I pause, unsure of how to put it.

Hisashi looks down at me, "Go ahead and say it, Yuk."

Rei hisses under her breath at the sound of my nickname coming from Hisashi, but I simply ignore her, "It's just that there aren't any sirens." I say. "Things have gotten this bad and yet I haven't heard any sirens. Rei said that 110 was busy, so people must be calling in, right? At the time, I figured it was because people in the school were calling, like the teachers or something, but what if… what if…"

"What if this is happening in town as well?" Hisashi finishes for me, contemplating.

"But that's crazy!" Rei argues, flailing her arms in frustration, "How is that possible? We would've heard about it much sooner!"

Hisashi looks at her and then at me, letting out a sigh, "Rei has a point, Yuki."

I nod, understanding what he's saying, but my muscles and stomach still ache with a dread that I can't explain.

That settles it. As more moans and groans fill the hallway behind us, we continue running along the hallway. It takes three flights of turning stairs before we reach a grey door that reads "No Students Are Permitted Beyond This Point" in bolded red letters. Takashi, who had taken the lead, shoves the door open with his shoulder and we sprint to the black metal railing lining the roof's edges.

I hear Rei suck in a sharp breath as everyone's eyes widen.

Even in the distance, we can see the dark smoke lift into the sky, red sparks jumping everywhere. The road is drenched in blood, both dead and undead, sirens from both ambulances and firefighters adding to the chaos.

"Holy shit, it's happening everywhere." Takashi's the first to speak, staring at the chaos with disbelieving eyes.

Rei's eyes are equally wide as she backs away from the railing, unwilling to believe it, "But everything was normal this morning!" She argues desperately, "Everything was fine a minute ago!"

I just stare, not answering. For the first time in my life, I'm not happy about being right. Rei had been right – everything had been normal this morning. And now, practically the entire city was in flames, like it had gone to hell.

Out of nowhere, a strong wind attacks the roof, causing Rei to stumble forward. I can feel the pull as well, but manage to keep a firm grip on the railing while still trying to keep my skirt from flying up. We all look up and come face to face with several, camouflage helicopters flying overhead.

"Black Hawks." I breathe, staring as they flying over the horizon.

Takashi sends me a questioning look, "Like the American Military or the Self-Defense Force?"

I nod absently, still staring.

"Where did they come from?" Takashi asks, "They don't have any bases near here!"

"Over here!" Rei shouts, obviously ignoring the rest of us as she starts waving her arms above her head, "Help us! We're over here!"

"It's useless." Hisashi says.

She looks at him, "How come?"

"Because of what Takashi said. He's right to question where they came from, don't you think? They didn't come all this way for nothing, so they're definitely here to carry out an order." He coughs a little and Rei pats his shoulder soothingly, "There's not enough space for them to land here to pick us up anyway. Besides, look over there." He points through the railing with his index finger, down to the school yard.

Girls and boys alike are running around the courts in their gym uniforms, trying to avoid the hungry-looking monsters limping after them with surprising speed. Some are attacked before they even know what's going on, but others are less fortunate, succumbing to wounds that would surely bleed out slowly – if they weren't eaten alive first, that is.

"They won't even notice us with that going on." He wheezes, "And that's what's happening outside the school where you can still escape. Imagine what's happening inside the school."

I shudder at the thought.

"This is like a disease caused by _Them_." Hisashi finishes.

"Them?"

He stares at the madness below us, nodding, "They might look like something from a video game or movie, but we can't call them 'zombies', so it's Them. _They_ feed on people, then after the people who were bitten come back, they come back as one of _Them_." He pauses to cough, "I don't know why, but for whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be anyway to stop them aside from crushing their heads-"

Roars erupt, followed by several moans. I cover my ears, trying to block out the sounds, but it doesn't work.

Takashi runs over to the door and tries to flip the lock, "Shit! It's broken." He looks over at us, "They'll be able to get in."

"What should we do!" Rei cries, clinging to Hisashi.

He glances around, eyes landing on a staircase, "We'll go up to the observatory and block the stairs."

I follow his gaze to a grey building protruding from the roof. Instead of the usual, flat roof like the one we were standing on, this one had a dome-shaped roof. Next to it is a staircase leading up to the observatory, a place where teachers went to monitor students during gym class.

We bolt across the roof, running as fast as we can. Hisashi and Takashi take the lead together, Takashi slamming in a few heads that get in our way. The door we had entered earlier starts bulging as They try to get in and with a loud _bang_, it finally gives, twenty or thirty of Them rush in, trying to get at us.

"Hurry!" Takashi yells, making a sharp turn to get to the stairs.

One of the undead try to tackle him to the ground, but he flips her over his back, her head hitting the wall pretty hard.

We get halfway up the stairs when Rei turns to me suddenly, taking her spear and gabbing it into the chest of a zombie behind me.

"Thank you." I say, relieved.

"Are you nuts?" Takashi scolds.

"Say what?" She demands angrily.

It's then that I remember what Hisashi said: The only way to kill them is to smash in their heads.

"Rei-!" I start, but it's too late.

It grabs hold of her makeshift spear firmly, taking it out of her distracted grip, and slams it into our bodies, causing us to hit the wall with a painful thud. I rub my head, groaning, as it makes its way to us, outstretching its arms.

"No!" Rei screams, "Get away!"

I grab the spear from her lap and hit it's leg. Unfortunately, all it does is knock it on its knees. With unseen persistence, it continues crawling towards us.

"Rei! Yuki!" Hisashi yells, grabbing Takashi's metal bat as he pushes passed him. Quickly, he rushes down the stairs, slamming the bat into the thing's head. Blood and brain matter is splattered all over the wall and it takes all of my self-control not to vomit.

"Did you see that, Rei?" He says, looking at the light brunette, "You have to smash their heads in, remember?"

She nods, wiping away the tears.

Another one tries to grab me, but Hisashi shoves his shoe into her stomach, causing the female zombie to tumble down the stairs, hitting her head on metal poles covering important wires.

Hisashi stumbles back himself a little, having lost his balance, and Rei and I each grab an arm, wrapping it around our necks to help him up the stairs.

As soon as we're at the top, Hisashi forces us to let him help Takashi find things to block the stairwell. Rei and I continually shove the zombies that are dumb enough to climb up the steps.

"Okay… Now!" Takashi says.

Quickly, Rei and I get out of the way as Takashi and Hisashi put two tables against the stairs vertically (the long side pointing up to the sky), and Takashi puts himself in between them.

"It won't hold like this!" He says, struggling to keep the mob from getting in.

Rei tosses Hisashi cellophane tape and he happily takes it, "I'll give it more support."

"Cellophane tape?" Takashi asks in disbelief, "Will that really be enough to hold?"

Hisashi smirks a little, "Wound cellophane tape is incredibly strong. Don't you pay attention in class?"

Takashi scoffs, as if to say 'Does it look like that matters right now?', and continues concentrating on not letting anything pass the tables.

After stacking another table against the other two horizontally, and adding a few four by four wooden beams, we take a break, sucking in air. Hisashi is across from me, leaning against the railing with his head back. He's starting to look awful, like he's coming down with a cold, and it's making me a little worried. Rei is next to him (of course), trying to process everything that just happened. Takashi and I, on the other hand, are standing. I'm leaning against the wall, trying to think of what to do next, and Takashi is standing a little ways away from the wall, the bat gripped strongly in his hand.

"Why… Why is this happening?" Rei asks, shivering.

"There has to be a reason." Hisashi says, offering her the best answer he can give when we know absolutely nothing, "Maybe if we find out the reason, we can stop it. Or, at least… protect ourselves." His breathing is shallow as he tries to continue. Sweat beads are starting to form on his forehead, making his face look ashy and dry.

I walk over to the railing, glancing down at Them as they attack more people and trying to process what Hisashi is explaining.

Is that really true? A reason for all this chaos and murder? I… I want to believe it, but something in my gut tells me that maybe this is bigger than us. It could be the nasty flips my stomach is doing or the pounding of my heart in my ears, but whatever it is, my instincts tell me that the best thing to focus on now is survival.

My eyes trail over the crowd, watching as more and more students are attacked. Suddenly, they land on a particular one – Morita. Only he isn't Morita anymore. His blonde hair is stained red with blood, probably from a wound on the back of his head, and his normally playful green eyes look dull, filled with a deep hunger and outlined in a black shadow. Blood is dripping from his right eye down his cheek, as it is from the corners of his mouth as well. In his rubbery hand is the leg of a dead girl whose face is down against the cement.

I cover my mouth, trying to blink away the fresh tears in my eyes that are threatening to overrun my lids.

Hisashi is always right, but maybe logic isn't the best thing to go on anymore.

"We need to look around." He says in a rush, causing me to pull my gaze away from the horrifying sight in the courtyard, "Maybe we can find a match or a lighter. If we don't make a fire now, we're going to be fucked when it gets dark."

He coughs, only this time it's worse, sounding more throaty and wet. Painfully, he slouches over and coughs up blood.

"Hisashi!" Rei and I say simultaneously. She grips his arm in support, whether it's for herself or him, I'm not sure. I keep my space by the railing, ignoring the urge to come to him as well.

He continues coughing, the blood starting to soak the sleeve of his uniform jacket.

I watch in horror as he leans back against the railing, this time looking worse than a few seconds ago. Blood is dripping down his mouth, falling loudly to the pavement. His normally light skin is now a dark ash, dark grey outlining his brown eyes. His eyes are focusing in and out, glazing over. He's not breathing any more – it's more like wheezing. The wound on his arm where Mr. Wakisaka bit him looks much worse. Instead of just the teeth marks with blood oozing out of them, it now looks like a gaping hole in his arm – the teeth marks somehow expanded and are now showing a little bone. The blood seeping into the pathetically made wrap is mixed with a yellowish puss, tainting the white with swirls of yellow in all the red.

His smirk is dark, brows drawn together in aggravation, "Just like in the movies." He states, voice breaking, "One bite is fatal."

My eyes are burning and I see that Rei is already in tears, "Things that happen in the movies don't come true!" She reasons hopelessly.

"But it did." He rasps, "To everyone else."

I bite back tears, unwilling to let Takashi and Rei see me cry.

Hisashi can't die… He's Hisashi for God's sake! If anyone has a chance of surviving, it's him! He's the one who made all the decisions up to this point! He's the reason we weren't trampled by panicking students! How can he die so easily from a small bite! It isn't possible, damn it! None of this is possible!

"Takashi…" Hisashi says, interrupting my mental argument, "Could you do me a favor?"

I can no longer see Takashi's eyes, they're hidden by his bangs, "…what is it?"

Weakly, he lifts a blood-spotted hand and points towards the railing on the opposite side with his index finger, "Help me… over the rail. It's straight to the ground from here, so the impact from the fall should smash my head."

Takashi's eyes widen as he looks at Hisashi, unsure if he can actually carry out such a heart wrenching request.

Rei's eyes are wide as well, "What are you saying?"

"I don't want to be one of them!" He barks, but the effort causing him to hunch over and puke up more blood. Now, instead of just a few splatters, the blood is covering the entire platform beneath him.

Rei grabs a hold of his chest, trying to keep him together, but it does nothing to help.

Hisashi throws his head back and blood erupts from his mouth, drenching Rei and I both, "Blaughh."

Takashi just stands there, not daring to move.

"Come on, Takashi… Do it for me." His looks at him with a remorseful face, his smile sympathetic, "I want to stay myself… until the end."

Takashi doesn't have time to answer. With a painful cry, he throws himself against the concrete floor, rolling in agony. Rei is trying everything she can think of to stop him from hurting, but I think she realizes it's pointless.

"No Hisashi!" She wails with helplessness, "You can't die!"

With a finally cry, Hisashi falls silent. I can feel my feet give out and I tumble to my knees, not caring in the least that I've probably just scraped the hell out of them. The tears finally fall over and hit the ground with a loud splash.

"Rei…" I whisper, unsure of what to do or say to make her feel better.

She looks up at me, her own tears flowing with no end in sight, and clings to me, crushing me with a hug that's full of so much agony. I hug her back, burying my face in her neck and letting the tears continue.

Hisashi's hand twitches and my eyes widen as I pull away from Rei, my breath hitching a notch.

"Get away from him you two." Takashi says emotionlessly, the grip on his bat tight.

Hisashi's torso lifts and I freeze in place, no longer breathing at all. Rei follows my gaze and her eyes lighten obliviously, watching as the now-dead Hisashi stands on his feet.

"Look Takashi!" She cheers pathetically, "He's getting up! He's going to be okay!"

I watch as he towers over me, the gentleness and caring in his eyes completely wiped away. In their place is a cold and empty hunger that's burning in him.

He isn't Hisashi. He isn't human anymore.

I stand up as Takashi and Rei argue and touch the end of the bat, "I'll do it." I whisper.

Takashi looks at me with shock, not expecting my offer, "But-"

I shake my head, stopping his protest, and grab the bat from his hands. Without looking at him, I pull the hair tie out of my hair, letting it fall to the end of my back, the bangs covering my watery eyes.

"This… This isn't happening." Rei whimpers. "This can't be…"

I try to ignore her, try to ignore the pain in my chest, and grip the bat with both hands, steading my shaking body.

Hisash- It limps after me with a hungry groan, slowly outstretching it's arms as it come closer.

Takashi is studying me with calm eyes; I can feel them burning into the side of my face.

As _it_ steps into my rang, I lift the bat, eyes still covered, and bring it down on the creatures head with a hard force that causing me to recoil from the hit. Blood spurts all over me, dotting my uniform and leggings with more red.

Rei lets out a deafening scream, falling to her knees next to the bloody creature, "Why…" She questions, looking at his bantered body, "Why?"

"It would have killed us if I didn't." I answer, barely keeping my voice controlled.

"I didn't ask you to save me!" She growls, "I wanted all of us to be okay! And how did you k-know that anyway! What are you? Some kind of expert?"

I try to ignore her, block her out.

Takashi lays a small towel over his bantered head silently, not even bothering to look at me when he does.0

"If Hisashi's going to leave me, then I want to become one of Them too!"

"Hisashi wouldn't want that." I say quietly, on the verge of breaking down.

"And how would _you_ know that, Yuki?" Her voice is so dark, so malicious, that I look to see her glaring at me with hateful eyes, "Oh, I get it now. You must have hated Hisashi, huh? I saw you, you know, all those times you spent talking with him, laughing like he was _your_ boyfriend and not _mine_. You must have hated that, huh? I bet it drove you insane to think that he ignored your advances because he cared more about _me_ and barely gave you a thou-"

"Shut up!" I scream, covering my ears and falling to my knees, "Just shut up! None of that's true! Hisashi didn't deserve to die, no matter who he was dating or who he loved more! Hisashi was kind and caring and he's the only one that knows who I am and where I came from!" The sobs escape uncontrollably and I cover my face as both Takashi and Rei stare at me with wide eyes, "Hisashi let me live with him! He took me in without a reason or complaint! He agreed to keep everything a secret and take care of me without any explanation at all! I have nowhere to go with him gone! I have no home, no family, I have _no one_!"

There's a long pause as they both digest this and I lean over Hisashi's remains, crying into his shirt.

Someone places a soft hand on my back and I look up to see Takashi kneeling next to me. Rei is behind him, looking guilty and ashamed.

"You have us." Takashi says, a deep sadness in his eyes, "You have me."

My eyes widen as he pulls me into a tight hug, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me against him. His words make me feel better, too much better in fact. I hiccup and return the hug, wrapping my arms around his neck and crying into his shoulder…

On the day all the madness started and the world seemed to be coming to an end, I killed the person I had considered my brother for five years and revealed too many secretes to my best friend and the guy I cared a little too much about, who intern, let me cry on his shoulder until I couldn't anymore.

* * *

**I'm sorry if this is long. At first, it wasn't this long, but when I rewrote it with more detail and added stuff in to get a better picture of Yuki in your heads, it sort've became like this ^.^"" Anywayy, I hope you enjoy my mix of High School of the Dead.**

**I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING EXCEPT YUKI AND A FEW DETAILS THAT I COME UP WITH!**

**Still, I hope you continue to read it(:**


	2. Escape from the Dead

_A little girl sat under the playground's funhouse, curled in the fetal position. Her white hair had just recently been hacked off with something closely resembling old, rusted sheers and now went almost up to her shoulders. Her big, green eyes weren't as bright as usual, instead, they showed just how broken she was. Her pretty pink dress with frilly, spaghetti strap sleeves was tattered and torn, revealing too much skin for an eight year old._

_ That was her second beating just that day._

_ Unfortunately, her dress wasn't the only thing ripped._

_ Several deep cuts covered her legs, trailing all the way up to her mid-thigh. They were still bleeding and would surely leave scars if she didn't get help soon._

_But who would she get help from? No one cared enough to help her. Her mother chose to ignore the beatings, as if the little girl was lying about where the fresh bruises and cuts come from, and wouldn't do anything to help her. The teachers at school don't notice anything either – she was too good at hiding it._

_ So she sat under her hiding place, softly crying into her knees as the sun started setting._

_ Hisashi, who was searching for a place to hide, stumbled across a small, plastic house under a familiar jungle gym he and Takashi liked to play on. He was sure Takashi would never expect him to be hiding in the faded purple house and ran over to it as he heard Takashi already getting to five._

_ The door was small, almost too small, and Hisashi hastily tried to inch-warm his way in. As soon as he was in, he turned to stare at a terrified little girl._

_ His eyes widened as she dug her back against the wall, tears welling up in her big eyes._

_ "Ready or not, here I come!" He heard Takashi yell._

_ He ignored it, fairly sure he was safe in the house, and made his way over to the girl, slowly crawling over to her._

_ Her breathing hitched and she could feel the plastic phone on the wall digging into her back, but she didn't care._

_ Someone had seen her!_

_ Hisashi paused in his advanced, about a foot away from her, "What's your name?" He asked, tilting his head, "I haven't seen you in school before…"_

_ She didn't answer, just kept avoiding his gaze like he was some monster._

_ "I'm Hisashi." He tried again, his voice becoming gentle, "You?"_

_ There was a long pause as the girl relaxed, becoming more and more trusting of the strange boy in front of her, "Yuki." She mumbled hoarsely, "Yuki Hatsune."_

_ He smiled, glad he finally got her to talk, "How old are you, Yuki?"_

_ "Eight." She answered, still quiet._

_ Hisashi blinked, a little taken back. This girl was only two years younger than him? He eyed her, a little disbelieving._

_ She looked a lot younger than eight; at least, that's what he thought. She was pale like a ghost, and thin, like she hadn't eaten in weeks. Her strange-colored hair looked ragged and disheveled, bringing out her light green eyes. His eyes trailed to the blood dripping down her leg and he inhaled sharply. He was just now noticing the bruises along her upper arm and her busted lip._

_ This little girl, whoever she was, was being abused._

_ "Do you come to this place often?" He asked, trying to keep from sounding alarm._

_ She hesitated, but nodded. For some unknown reason, she wanted to trust this stranger. She wanted to have faith that he wasn't like the rest, that he wouldn't betray her like everyone else._

_ His smile was warm and it was as if she could feel the warmth fill her, numbing the pain from the beating even if for a little bit, "Then I'll make you a deal. I'll meet you here tomorrow at the same time and we'll play. How does that sound?"_

_ "O-Okay." She stuttered, surprised._

_ No one had even wanted to play with her – all the kids her age avoided her like the plague – and she didn't exactly know what the little boy was up to, but she selfishly hoped it was out of kindness that he wanted to hang out with her – not pity._

**Observatory on the Roof, Fujimi High School; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day 3:52 pm**

The sun is blinding me, reflecting off the stained towel draped over Hisashi's head. It's no longer pleasant, no longer warming my skin or making me smile, instead, it's highlighting the very thing I would like to forget.

I'm staring blankly at Hisashi's bantered body, trying desperately not to think about it and wishing whatever nightmare we're in will end soon so I can wake up and tackle Hisashi.

But it's a vain and stupid wish and I know it.

Takashi is sitting next to me, back against the wall with one leg propped up and the other laying straight out. His face is concentrating, lost in thought almost, with his brows drawn together a little. Rei is on his other side with her knees under hey chin, arms wrapped around them. The sadness and complete disgust hasn't wiped from her face yet, but I'm fairly certain she doesn't completely hate me anymore.

_Completely_ hate me, meaning she probably still hates me just not entirely.

All three of us are thinking about basically the same thing: Hisashi.

No one's speaking, however. We haven't spoken since I stopped crying. The only noise is our breathing and the undead clawing and scratching at our barricade, obviously trying to get to us. I think I made Rei feel bad though, because she refuses to look me in the eye, even though I caught her looking at me a few times.

I can't blame her, though. If I just found out the guy I was in love with was living with my best friend, I would be speechless too.

I almost groan.

I shouldn't have broken down like that. I should've held my ground and let Rei take a few attacks at me, get her anger and grief out, and gone on with life, but no. My emotions took over and I revealed things I shouldn't have: I revealed how I actually feel.

Still… What am I going to do without Hisashi?

The question has my heart crying and stomach churning.

"What's the matter?" Takashi asks, surprising me.

I jump a little, but relax, "Nothing." I lie, "Just thinking about how we're getting out of here."

He sighs, surprising me further, but doesn't say anything, just glances out into the sky.

"What about you?" Rei asks Takashi, "What's wrong with you?"

He glances at her before turning back to the sky, "I was wondering what the hell is going on."

"That's a pretty straightforward answer." She mumbles.

"What's the point in lying about it?" He retaliates, scratching his head a little.

She watches him, smiling a little, and stands up, "I think I should let my father know I'm okay. Can I use your cell?"

Takashi hands it to her and they stand up, Rei heading over to the railing.

"I understand that he's a police office," Takashi starts, trying to find the right words, "but we can't even connect to 110."

She dials a few numbers on the cell, and I'm sure she's ignoring him, until she puts the phone to her ear, "I know this secret number he gave me in case of an emergency."

With a small sigh, I stand up and join them, standing on the other side of Rei.

"It got through." She says as I faintly hear someone pick up.

"Takashi? Is that you?" A man on the other side asks.

"Dad, listen!" She says quickly, "Daddy, we're at school and there's been-"

"Hello, Takashi? You must have gotten this number from Rei." The man rushes, "Is Rei okay? Is she with you? Are you both alright?"

"Daddy, what's the matter! Can't you hear me?" Rei starts panicking.

"Listen carefully." He begins, "The entire city is in panic mode." A gun shot causes all of us to flinch, "You need to get out of there! You understand! The city is already in panic mode. You need to evacua-"

The connection ends and all we hear is the busy signal.

Rei takes the phone away from her ear and looks at it, "No service?" She says in disbelief, "But I just called him! I don't understand!"

Her eyes well up with tears as Takashi tries to get her attention.

With a feeble turn of her body, she clutches the phone against her chest, looking at Takashi with broken eyes, "Takashi… My dad… He didn't know that it was me at all." She mumbles, tears falling over her cheeks, "He didn't even know me."

Takashi looks at her, surprised.

I bite back resentment and turn to city, watching as more and more madness breaks out. In the distance, I can see an ambulance truck smash into a cable pole, the cable wires sparking as they break apart and fall to the ground. As the guys in the vehicle try to get out, a mob of men – who don't look like one of Them – attack them, shooting both of them and taking off with their supplies.

But as they approach a horde of Them, they attempt to run them over. However, because there's too many, the vehicle flips, sliding on its side into a fire hydrant. The fire hydrant busts open and the water squirts high in the air, so high, Rei and Takashi look up at it.

"That's it!" I say, turning around and running to a single, wooden door near our barricade.

I try to turn the knob, but the door is locked. With a frustrated breath, I bring my foot back and ram it into the door. There's a pleasant _crack_ from the wood and I smirk, bringing my foot back again and kicking it with all the force I can muster. The metal lock breaks off and the door swings open violently, hitting the inside of the room with another crack.

"Hell yeah!" Takashi says, "Nice kick, Yuki."

I chuckle a little and step inside the room.

It's the Astronomy Club's storage area. Ten or eleven telescopes of all sizes are stacked in the room along with sleeping bags and a mini refrigerator in the corner. I pay them no mind as I feel the wall on the left side, searching.

When my hands touch cold metal, I smile.

"Guys," I say, "I have an idea."

Takashi steps into the doorway and looks at me, "What kind of idea?"

I nod to the fire hose and smirk, "Remember that time in eighth grade when the firefighters came to school and I decided to see how strong the water pressure was?"

Takashi nods, chuckling, "Yeah. You ended up getting us out of school for two weeks for water damage."

"Think I can do something like that again?"

His eyes widen in understanding, "Yuki, you're a genius!"

I laugh a little, cheeks heating up as I rub my head, "I don't know about that."

There's a loud _humph_ and Takashi and I turn to Rei, who's pouting with her arms crossed, "If you two are done flirting, I'd like to get out of here."

I clear my throat and start hooking the hose up to the water pump, handing it to Takashi, "Point it at the tables." I instruct, "The pressure is intense and it's probably going to be a little hard to control, so you might want Rei to help you. When you two are situated, tell me and I'll turn this red wheel."

He nods and carries the hose over to the barricade.

After a few minutes, I hear, "Turn it!"

I turn the wheel to the right as fast as I can. The sounds of water going every fills outside and I shake my head, smiling.

The idiot didn't listen to me.

Takashi cusses and I can hear water raining on the roof.

Quickly, I run to the doorway to see Rei standing behind Takashi, both of them trying to control the hose.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah." Takashi says, holding the end of the hose in the air, successfully soaking all three of us.

He glares at Them, face hardening, "I didn't like most of you fucks then and I sure as hell don't like you now." He growls, "Eat it!"

The pressure from the water breaks the cellophane tape and causes the tables to attack Them, smashing them all the way to the bottom of the stairs and into the ground. The sound of mangle bodies and groans grow silent as each one pathetically attempts to climb the stairs, only to be beaten down by water.

"The fire hose…" Takashi starts, "Not too shabby."

I smile and walk over to the stairs behind Rei, "Thank you. I do try."

Rei and I walk down the stairs, making splashing noises with each step we take, and she takes a stand by Takashi. I stand next to her, not in the mood to start something.

"I think it should be okay now." Rei says enthusiastically.

"How I admire your optimism." He says sarcastically, causing me to chuckle. "You sure about this?"

As if to prove her point, she steps down to the same step as Takashi and holds out his bat. He reaches for it, but their fingers brush against each other. They stare at each other, slightly surprised, before Takashi grabs higher on the end of the bat, looking away.

"Let's go." He says.

Rei looks away and nods, red tinting her cheeks.

Again, the jealousy burns in my heart, making me clench my fists and teeth.

I shake off the bitter feeling as Takashi and Rei start running towards the door, knocking over the undead as they attack us. We take the stairs two at a time, heading down to the third floor and out the door into the outside hallway. Without wasting any time to look at the havoc, we speed into the school building, coming into contact with a few more undead. Surprisingly, there aren't nearly as many as I expect – considering the amount of students in school – and we easily deal with them.

Only when we get to the stairs to head to the second floor, do we start talking.

"Where do we run to?" Rei asks, breaking the silence.

Takashi pauses, taking a minute before turning to us, smiling, "To my house." He says, "We'll go there and get supplies that we need and meet up with other people who haven't turned yet. We'll work together and get someplace safe."

I study him, not entirely believing it. Sure, his plan is logical and probably the best thing to do, but his smile worries me. I can still see the hint of something in his eyes – Fear, maybe? Worry?

"Yeah you're right! Now that I know my dad's okay…" Rei pauses, glancing back at me, "Yuki, we should probably call your house and see if everyone's okay. You too, Takashi."

The thought of my father being okay makes me nauseous, even my mother for that matter.

Rei's eyes widen as she realizes what she just said, "You lived with Hisashi…" She says slowly, processing it and probably connecting the dots, "Did you two live together… alone?"

It's question that causes my heart to speed up. Familiar, angry grey eyes flash in my mind and a large hand that has left many prints on people. All the yelling, all the blood, mother looking as if she's been betrayed…

"Yuki?" Rei touches my shoulder and I cringe away from her touch.

"S-Sorry." I mumble, trying to get back my façade, "Yeah, we lived together alone."

"For how long?" Rei persists, obviously getting more and more angry by the minute.

I gulp, not willing to answer.

"How long?" She repeats, now glaring at me.

"Rei, leave her alone." Takashi snaps, "She obviously doesn't want to talk about it."

Her eyes narrow before she sighs, looking at Takashi, "What about your parents, Takashi? We should probably call them."

"Waste of time, nobody's home. My dad won't be back in town till next week and my mom's a school teacher, so she won't be home till after five." He says, heading on down the stairs, "Besides, they get on my nerves."

Rei laughs, following after him, "Well they're parents. That kind of comes with the job."

As we head get to the second floor staircase, there's a high-pitched scream that causes all of us to look at the door to the second floor.

All three of us look at each other and nod. Hastily, I jerk open the door and rush in, heading down the hall and in the direction I thought I heard the scream – the faculty room.

We arrive the same time as a third-year girl and the nurse, Ms. Shizuka. Immediately, we all look into the room to see Takagi in tears, a drill in her hands that she's using to pulverize one of Them. Blood is splashing all over her, covering her in a rain of red as she shakes.

"I can't stand it anymore!" She cries over the loud screech of the drill, "Someone, please!"

"I'll take the right side." The girl says, holding up her wooden sword.

"I'll hold down the left!" Rei shouts, taking a run after the other undead in the room.

As Takashi, Rei, and the other girl take on the small horde in the room, I head over to Takagi, kicking the zombie in the head. It crashes to the floor with an unappealing _thud_ next to her, hitting its head against the class case. Takagi drops the drill, shaking terribly bad.

"H-Hatsune…" She quivers.

The room falls silent as all the zombies are kill off, only the sound of Takagi's soft sobs resonating in the room. I stand next to her, debating on whether she would accept me comforting her or simply push me away. She's looking at herself in the reflection of the trophy case, horrified at her bloody uniform.

"Taka-" Kohta starts, but is stopped as Rei and Ms. Shizuka run over, Ms. Shizuka's boobs successfully hitting the poor guy in the face, causing him to tumble to the ground.

Hard.

"Takagi, are you okay?" Rei asks gingerly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Miyamoto…"

I stand up and walk over to Kohta, helping him up, "Are you okay?"

He smiles at me, "Yeah, I'm alright. Glad you're okay, Yuki."

"Of course." I grin, "After all those fights you've seen me in, how could I not be?"

Our conversation is interrupted by Takashi, who closes and locks the glass door to keep anything out.

"You already know the school nurse, Doctor Marikawa, right?" The girl says, looking at all of us, "And I'm Saeko Busujima from class 3-A."

"I'm Takashi Komuro from class 2-B."

"Ms. Busujima, I remember you won the National Championship last year." Rei says, standing up and smiling, "I'm Rei Miyamoto. I'm in the Spear Martial Arts Club."

"I'm Yuki Hatsune from class 1-A." I say, feeling a little young.

Saeko nods, looking at me, "You're the girl that got in a fight with Tsunoda Satoshi this morning."

I laugh uneasily, rubbing my head, "Well, yeah. That was me."

"Oh, and I-I'm Kohta Hirano from Class B, just FYI." Kohta says timidly, playing with his fingers.

She sends him a friend smile, "Nice to meet you."

Kohta gasps, mouth gaping open as he blushes.

I chuckle, "Way out of your league." I say, patting his shoulder.

Everyone laughs.

"Why are you guys being all warm and fuzzy?" Takagi asks darkly, standing up.

"What?" The guys ask.

"Why are you being so polite to her Miyamoto? You flunked last year so you're all the same age. She's not your elder."

"What are you talking about, Takagi?" Takashi demands.

"Don't talk to me like I'm stupid!" She explodes, "I'm smarter than all of you combined! You should be lucky I'm even in the same school as you! I'm a… I'm a…"

Saeko walks over to her and places a hand gently on her shoulder, "It's okay. That's enough."

It's like all the fire is wiped out as she looks over at the trophy case again, staring at her messy clothes and red-painted body, "Look at me…" She mumbles, voice cracking. "All these blood stains… now mom will have to take it to the cleaners…"

Takashi walks over to her, looking at her through the reflection with a solemn look, reminding her that it's okay.

The tears in her eyes fall over as she buries her face into Saeko's chest, gripping her sleeves tightly in her fists. With a loud cry, she breaks down. Everyone watches with sad eyes as both Saeko and Takagi slide to the ground, Takagi still holding onto her for life. She cries until she can't cry anymore…

When her sobs turn to hiccups and she finally calms herself, she pulls away from Saeko, wiping her eyes.

"There's a sink in the faculty room." I offer, nodding to the room next door, "You can wash your face there."

She looks up at me and nods a little.

"Alright." Takashi says, heading over to the sliding door.

After a quick nod, he, Saeko, and Rei all rush out of the door, the rest of us closely behind them. There's only a few of Them running around, so we get to the door to the next room fairly easy, Takashi only have to take out a few. As soon as we're inside, Takagi heads straight to the bathroom, while Kohta, Takashi, Saeko, and I all start stacking chairs and boxes in front of the door, barricading ourselves in.

"What d'ya think?" Takashi asks.

Kohta nods his head, "Yeah."

Saeko heads to a chair near a teacher's desk, rubbing her shoulder, "I think that's enough for right now. Let's take a quick break."

"I agree with Saeko." I say, "Besides, it looks good to me."

"Awesome." Kohta says, heading to the bathroom to see if Takagi.

I let out a sigh and collapse on the nearest chair, laying my head back.

"So you know Kohta?" Takashi asks, sounding generally surprise.

"More or less." I answer, rubbing my temples, "We met a few weeks ago in Shido's class."

"Shido?" Takashi repeats.

The questions start to make me a little worried. Takashi has never asked really anything about the things I do.

Until now.

And it makes me question why now he decides to be so interested.

Of course, he did just find out that I'm… was living with Hisashi.

Luckily, Kohta chooses now to talk to Takagi, "A-Are you alright?" There's pause as I hear Kohta's sharp intake of breath. In a high-pitched voice, probably from surprise, he asks, "Y-Y-You w-wear glasses?"

"Shut up!" Takagi snaps in defense, "My contacts have been in for too long."

Oh how its sooo nice she's back to her old self.

I let out another sigh and close my eyes, only to have them snap open when I hear someone approach me.

"Here you go." Rei says, handing a water bottle in her hands to Takashi, "And here's one for you too, Yuki."

I smile, "Thanks."

She returns it, a little forced. It makes my chest clench that she's so mad at me. In all the three years that I've known her, Rei has never really been mad at me. Upset? Sure. But never outright pissed like she seemed to be now.

I groan softly and set the bottle to the side, resting my head against the back of the chair again.

Today's going to be a long day.

"Doctor Marikawa, where's the car key?" Takashi asks.

"Oh!" She says as if she just remembers why we're in this room in the first place. She starts digging through her brown, backpack purse "There in my purse somewhere."

"Is your car even big enough to fit all of us?" Saeko asks.

"Well, now that I think about it…" She trails off, deflated.

"What about the microbuses we use for the clubs' away games?" I offer, "It looks like the keys are on the wall hook."

Kohta opens up the blinds just enough for him to see outside, "I see the buses. They're still here."

"That's fine, but where are we going?" Ms. Shizuka asks, turning to Takashi.

"We're going to make sure that our familiars are okay." Takashi replies, sitting down against the barricade, "Since all of us live near here, we'll just start with the family who live closest. If you're worried about your family, or if they need it, we'll bring them with us. After that, we'll look for a safe place to stay."

"We're bound to find them eventually." I say, looking up at everyone, "The police and Self-Defense force are on it, after all. If they handled this like they handle earthquakes and other disasters, then there should be someplace everyone's being evacuated too."

"What is this?" Rei mumbles, staring at the muted television screen mounted on the wall.

Everyone turns to her.

The screen was showing a news broadcast that seemed to be live.

Saeko picks up the remote and turns up the volume.

"The government has begun to reconsider the emergency measures against the out breaks that have been occurring in locations around the city." The woman on the news says, holding a stack of paper in her hands.

"Outbreaks?" Takashi repeats with agitation. "What do they mean 'outbreaks'?"

"However, all the political parties have been expressing their uncertainty as the-"

Saeko changes the channel, switching it to another, more reliable news channel.

"It's been feared that more than ten thousand have been victimized in the Saitama area so far. The governor has already called for the-"

There's a loud shot on the TV and the news woman cringes away from her right, looking horrified. I jump out of my seat and head over to the rest, who have gravitated towards each other.

"It's a gunshot!" The woman says with more feeling – the feeling of fear. "From what I can see there…"

The camera man turns the cameras towards body bags about to be moved into an ambulance. The brown bags, which are supposed to contain the bodies of the decease, start sitting up. More gunshots are heard as the police attempt to kill the already-dead.

The woman's voice pauses until she shrieks, "No! NOO!"

Suddenly… static.

We all stare with horrified, wide-eyes. Unconsciously, I grip Takashi's sleeve and clench my eyes shut.

What the hell is going on?


	3. Democracy Under the Dead

_Yuki smirked at Hisashi, who looked slightly impressed._

_ "Wow, Yuk. You're really improving." He said approvingly, using her nickname that he had come up with._

_ "Thank you." She said, "I do try."_

_ He chuckled, straightening up from his fighting stance._

_ They had been training. Hisashi, who was already a brown belt in Karate, had made a deal with her: If she promised to learn self-defense, he wouldn't tell anyone about her… "Parental problem"._

_ Yuki stretched out her back, bending back as far as she could. Thanks to her new junior high uniform, which consisted of a short, maroon-colored skirt and a long-sleeve, white shirt with a matching maroon tie, she was forced to wear leggings when at school. Now, however, she had stripped them off, unwilling to let them hinder her movement when she was sparing with Hisashi._

_ Hisashi watched as she stretched, certain that he could see flash of red along her wrists, "Hey Yuki."_

_ Yuki straightened up, looking at him with a slight tilt of her head, "What's up?"_

_ "What happened to your arms?" His ask, his question causing her body to go rigid, "Did your dad-"_

_ "What are you talking about?" She interrupted nervously, trying to laugh it off, "You're so paranoid, Hisashi."_

_ It was futile and she should've known that. Even if she was able to lie to everyone in school, she was never able to lie to Hisashi. He could always see through them no matter how well she hid it._

_ "Roll down your sleeves." He barked._

_ She flinched at the sound, heart pounding in her ears, "W-Why?"_

_ Roughly, he grabbed her arm and she whimpered. Hisashi was always calm and collect, for him to lose his temper like this meant she was in serious trouble._

_ Serious trouble._

_ He rolled down her sleeve, ignoring her protests, and gaped at the fresh wounds._

_ "Yuki…" He breathed. Trailing up her forearm were thick, delicate cuts, all of which looked deep and swollen, "Where… but how… He couldn't have made those so straight."_

_ They both knew the "he" he was referring to was her father._

_ She snatched back her arm, humiliated and scared, "Don't worry about them." She mumbled, "They're not important."_

_ "Not important?" He repeated, bewildered, "You're hurting yourself and it's _not important_?"_

_ Yuki avoided his gaze, not denying it. It would've been pointless to deny it – he would see through it anyway._

_ He was speechless, worried, and a little hurt. How could it have come to this? How could _he_ let it come to this? He was supposed to help her work through everything – he was her friend after all – how could he not have noticed things have gotten this bad?_

_ It was the last straw. He couldn't allow it to go on anymore. She was already thirteen and he was fifteen._

_ "Yuki…" He began, knowing he would have to explain to Rei why there was a new girl tagging along with them, "I think you should move in with me."_

**Faculty Room, Fujimi High School; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day 4:37 pm**

The fuzziness disappears, a "Please Stand By" screen popping up. It almost makes me puke by how happen and carefree the damn thing looks. Takagi rolls her eyes, showing me she feels the same way I do.

Thankfully, the annoying picture is replaced with a pretty female reporter. Her brown hair is pulled into a messy bun, some of it sticking out. Her brown eyes look determined and focus, no hint of the horrors outside in them.

"There appears to be a problem with our remote." She lies smoothly, "From now on, we'll bring you the story from inside the studio."

We can hear the chaos from inside the studio. It's like several people are talking all at once in the background.

"The condition outside is extremely chaotic, so stay home unless it's absolutely necessary to go outside. We'll bring you more stories as soon as it's safe to cover the situation from the sight."

_Wham_!

I jump at the sound of Takashi slamming his fist on the table in frustration, "Is that all! Why didn't they tell us anything else?" He demands to no one in particular.

"They're afraid of causing a panic." Takagi answers.

"A panic?" Rei repeats, a slight question in her voice.

"Yeah, you idiot!" Takagi growls.

"Will you can it, Takagi? No one needs your know-it-all attitude, okay?" I snap.

"Coming from the girl who can't keep from beating the shit out of someone who just touches her shoulder!" She shoots back.

I clench my fists, anger boiling, "You don't know anything about that, so keep your trap shut!"

Takashi places a hand on my shoulder and I look up at him, "Just calm down you two. This isn't the time to be fighting."

I cross my arms and turn around, glaring at the wall.

So help me God, if I have to hang out with that know-it-all hag, I'll kill myself.

"What were you saying, Takagi?" Takashi asks, obviously hoping that if she gets to show off her knowledge, she'll calm down as well. "Something about panicking? Even after that news broadcast everyone just saw?"

"_Because of_ what they just saw." She says, "Fear causes chaos and chaos can destroy order in a city. And if there's no order then who knows how many lives will be lost."

"This unusual and unprecedented phenomenon that spread through North America…"

I tune the woman's voice out, leaning against Takashi's arm. He looks down at me, but I ignore him. Surprisingly, he wraps an arm around me like Hisashi would've done and pulls me against him, allowing me to relax against his touch.

Of course, unlike if it was Hisashi, my face heats up and I can feel the blush spread across my cheeks.

Never, in a million years, would I believe Takashi to be this… willing to have me against him.

_You have me_.

His words echo in my head and the blush darkens.

"So, they're everywhere?" Takashi asks in disbelief.

I can't blame him. It _is _almost impossible for something this huge to have happened so fast.

"That's crazy." Kohta says, "Everything was normal when I checked the internet this morning."

"I can't believe this." Rei mumbles, "This happened all over the world in a matter of a few hours." Her voice cracks as she backs up slowly next to Takashi, not noticing me. When she feels for his sleeve and instead touches my hand, she looks back with surprise before her eyes narrow, the jealousy evident on her face. Instead of starting something like I expected her too, she simply puts her hand to her side and settles with standing next to him.

Still. I can't help feeling as if I've somehow started a war between the two of us.

"But they'll stop it, right?" She asks hopelessly, "I mean, they have to stop it from spreading. Then everything'll go back to normal."

"That's not going to happen." Takagi says bluntly.

"Why do you have to be so blunt about it?" Takashi asked, taking up for Rei.

"This is a pandemic we have our hands." She says simply, shrugging, "There's nothing we can do."

"A pandemic…" Ms. Shizuka says, unbelievably.

Everyone looks slightly confused so I elaborate, "A pandemic is an outbreak of the same infectious disease worldwide."

"So what? It's some kind of epidemic?" Takashi asks, trying to get a better understanding.

Takagi sighs, like she's talking to a bunch of children, "It seems a bit like the Spanish Flu of 1918. Recently, they said that the whole bird flu thing had the potential to reach the levels of what happened in 1918. It was because over600 _million_ people got infected by the Spanish Flu and 50 million were killed by it."

"Not to be disagreeable, but I think this is more like the Black Death from the 14th Century." Ms. Shizuka corrects.

"One third of the European population died." Takagi muses, "You're smarter than you look."

"So how did the outbreak finally end?" Takashi asks Ms. Shizuka.

"Well, there are many theories." She starts, "It usually stops when too many humans die, there wouldn't be enough people to spread the disease, but…"

"But now, all the dead people start moving and attack others." Kohta says, looking away from the window he had been watching.

"Are you saying that there's no reason for this outbreak to stop?" Saeko says emotionlessly, her face blank.

"Oh! I know!" Ms. Shizuka says enthusiastically, "The weather's going to be hot! They might not be able to move if their flesh decomposes and they become skeletons."

I shake my head, stopping her train of thought, "I don't think so."

"What are you talking about, Yuki?" Takashi asks, looking down at me.

"We have to take into consideration that these are _moving_ corpses we're talking about." I explain, "First of all, people aren't exactly supposed to come back from the dead according to medical logic, which obviously doesn't apply to the undead. They might not decompose and even if they do, it might not matter."

"First thing we find out is if our families are okay." Saeko says, putting a finger to her bottom lip, "Then we need to find someplace safe to stay for a while. But no matter where we go, we're going to need a plan."

"If we're going to pick up survivors, I say we team up." I suggest, "It'll be easier to take care of Them when we're with someone who could back us up."

"She has a point." Saeko says.

"I'll go with Yuki." Takashi offers, nodding to me, "We'll find her a weapon while we're out."

"Alright." Saeko agrees, "Rei and I will take care of Ms. Shizuka and hunt down survivors."

"And Hirano and I will continue to find out more about Them." Takagi says.

Takashi nods, "Let's do it."

"What's the best way out of here?" Rei asks everyone.

"Sorry to break it to ya, stupid, but we're just going to have to go out the front." Takagi says.

Everyone remains silent and I decide to ignore her rude remark.

"Let's go." Takashi says.

Kohta slides open the door and reveals a few undead standing in front of us. Their heads lazily turn in our direction and without hesitance, Kohta takes out the first two, hitting them in the center of their forehead. Takashi follows suit and bashing one in the side, knocking him loudly to the ground. Soon, we all split up into our groups and head in different directions. Takashi and I head to the Martial Arts room on the second floor, rushing past the undead idiots that don't have enough time to even bite at us.

Quickly, we rush into the automobile club's room and don't even bothering locking the door.

"Think there's something you can use in here?" Takashi asks.

I run over to the high cabinets and yank one open, not trying to be quiet. In front of me, hanging on small metal hooks, are three crowbars of different sizes. I grab the biggest one, the one used mostly for cars, and turn to Takashi.

"I'm ready now. We can go."

He nods and we head out of the room and down the hallway, rushing to the stairs.

We met up with the others on the last flight of stairs before reaching the front door. Three more students, whose names I don't know, are gathered with Takagi, Saeko, Kohta, Rei, and Ms. Shizuka.

Silently, we walk to them, wondering why they weren't moving.

And then we saw it.

At the bottom of the stairs, a swarm of the undead is flooding the floor, walking around aimlessly. The reason there weren't many on the floors high up is because all of Them are down there on the first floor.

"Man, there are a bunch of Them." Takashi whispers.

I nod.

"Glad you two could join us." Takagi says with thick sarcasm. "From what I can tell, the only things they react to are sounds, so it's pointless to hide from them."

"Why don't you go down there and prove that theory." I snap.

She cringes and pouts, looking away.

"But even if we keep going through the inside of the school, once we get attacked, we're going to be stuck." Saeko says.

"So we might as well go through the gate!" Rei says hotly, "We don't have any choice if we want to get out."

"You don't say." I say sarcastically, "Why don't you point out something else, Captain Obvious."

She glares at me, a hint of surprise in her eyes. It had been a while sense the last time I snapped at her and I bet she wasn't expecting it.

"Someone needs to go and confirm Takagi's theory." Saeko states.

The only question is: Who?

I look at everyone's face and sigh. No one wants to put themselves in danger for something like a theory.

No one wants to die.

"I'll go." I say, breaking the tense silence, "I'll do it."

Everyone looks at me with wide-eyes.

"But Yuki-"

I cut Rei off with my hand, "No one wants to risk their lives. If I don't do it, who will?"

"I think I should go first." Saeko suggests.

I shake my head, "You're needed up here, Saeko. If they attack me, they're next targets will be up here and you guys'll need all the manpower you can get."

"But why you?" Takashi asks.

_Because I'm not afraid of dying._

It's a question I don't think they want the answer to.

"Because I'm the youngest." I point out, "If I can't at least test out a few theories, what else am I good for?"

Takagi scoffs, "There's a difference between being the youngest and dying, Hatsune."

I smirk a little, "Aww, is Takagi worried that I'll die?"

Her eyes widen and she crosses her arms, "Whatever. I just don't want Stupids here blaming me for your death." She says, pointing at Rei and Takashi.

I smile, shaking my head, and head down the steps.

"Yuki, wait!" I hear Rei call, which makes my smile widen. At least she doesn't hate me enough to where she doesn't care if I die.

"Don't." Saeko says, holding her by the stomach using her arm, "I understand, but you can't interfere. There's obviously another reason she chose to go. After all, this was her decision."

"Takashi, why didn't you stop her?" Rei demands, but stops when she sees his face.

Takashi is just staring after me, concentrating. He must have recognized the feeling in my eyes, known what it was.

The staircase never seems to end as I take each step as quietly as I possibly can. My heart is pounding in my ears, telling me something isn't right, something bad is going to happen. The feeling of inevitable doom had my stomach doing flips. It's necessary for me to do this to see what's going on.

In all honesty, being only sixteen barely bothers me. The rest, besides Takagi and Kohta who are both seventeen, being eighteen never bothered me either. But I do feel a little useless and I think in respects to Hisashi, I'm doing the right thing by walking into this death trap.

Besides, I never have feared dying.

I walk to the middle of the floor, surrounded by dead students. I'm not breathing and try to force my hands to stop shaking.

A student, an upperclassman probably, walks towards me, looking me straight in the eye.

I freeze as he brushes my arm, but he does nothing, just continues to the wall.

I let out a relieved breath and smile a little.

This is the first time I'm grateful for Takagi's know-it-all personality.

If they can't see me, but can hear me…

I bend down and slip off my flats, leaving me with just my leggings covering my feet. Quickly, I chuck them against the lockers, hearing a soft but definite _bam_. The students near me let out hungry groans and head towards my shoes. Hastily, while still being as quiet as I can, I walk over to the double doors, pushing them open with only a soft _click_ that none of the undead hears.

The others walk down without any noise and Takashi takes the other door and holds it open for the rest as they rush pass. The boy with the metal prong is the last one down, holding his weapon with sweaty hands. Ever so slightly, the metal bounces off the railing to the stairs creating a _ding_ that resonates all around us.

It all seems to happen in slow motion. All of us turn to the culprit, even the ones that have already made it out the door, and it's as if all the undead beings turn in our direction, even the ones way out in the court.

"Run!" Takashi yells.

Everyone in front of us dashes across the yard, leaving Takashi, Takagi, and I rushing along the man with the prong.

"Why did you open your big mouth?" Takagi shouts, "We could have made it just by taking care of the ones that were close by if you hadn't said anything!"

Before Takashi or I can say anything, one of Them appears behind her, ready to take a chunk out of her shoulder. Quickly, I run at her and slide on my hip, successfully ripping my leggings to shreds, but I didn't care. I nail the zombie just above the ankle, causing it to fall forward.

Takagi's staring at me with wide eyes as Saeko bashes the zombie in the head, making sure it won't get up to attack us.

"What?" I ask nonchalantly, "Don't act like you wouldn't have done the same for me."

She gapes and points at my legs.

I look down and cuss. Apparently, the concrete had literally ripped my leggings to shreds. The thick scars covering them are undeniable and hard to cover up, especially the thin, pink one that wraps around my outer thigh.

"-the hell?" Takashi breathes.

"Guys, now is not a time to be staring off into spa-" Rei's eyes widen as she turns to look at me, "Yuki, those are…"

"Watch out!" Saeko shouts, knocking another dead student out that was about to eat Rei, "Seriously guys, don't you understand the trouble we're in?"

That snaps them out of it.

Takashi rips his eyes away from my legs and turns to the horde of Them limping our way.

"They're too many…" Kohta says, seeming to echo the dismay I feel.

Takashi clenches his hands around his metal bat and charges ahead of us. With a powerful swing, he takes out one of Them and sends it flying to the side.

"Forget talking." He barks, smashing in another zombie, "Just run!"

Saeko runs up to catch him, both of them bashing in the faces of as many dead students as they can. Rei and I are closely behind them, fighting together to take care of the ones they miss. Without any of us realizing it, one of the survivors they had saved, a boy with dark hair and a towel draped around his neck, is suddenly surrounded. As he swings, one grabs hold of the towel around his neck and bites into his arms.

"Takuzo!" A girl with shoulder-length black hair shouts.

"Naomi, run!" Takuzo shouts as the small horde encases him.

I turn around to see what's going on just in time to see Naomi try to run to him. Takagi, however, grabs her wrist to keep her back.

"Just forget him!" She shouts, "One you're bitten, it's pointless!"

The girl looks at Takagi with a look of helplessness and a strong resolve. Tears fall over her cheeks as she shakes her head and turns to continue running to the already-dead Takuzo.

"Wait a minute!" Takagi reasons, "You heard me, didn't you? He's not going to make it! Why are you going back to him?"

Ms. Shizuka backs up, a look of horrific understanding, "I understand…" She mumbles, "If the entire would has turned into this, I would rather die with the person that I love…"

Takagi turns to face her with a glare, "Oh, shut up Doctor Bleeding Heart!" She growls.

"Look out!" Kohta shouts another man-eating student tries to attack her, but he instantly shoots it, nailing him in his head.

"What?" She responds, almost clueless.

"Don't you worry, Takagi!" Kohta says, coming to stand in front of her like a body guard.

"Why you rude little otaku!" She screams, "How dare you interrupt me when I'm talking!"

I roll my eyes, taking out a zombie that tries to eat my shoulder.

"I don't know…" He says, puzzled. Then he turns to her with an innocent, sweet smile, "Because I really like your voice."

Her eyes widen as she jumps back a little, cheeks heating up with a light blush.

More of Them are crowding around us and I take it as a sign to get moving. With a quick turn of my heel, I rush towards Takashi and Ms. Shizuka. Saeko, who had gone to back to tease Takagi and Kohta, is now beside me, helping me fend off the monsters.

Takashi, with a quick flick of his wrist, bashes in a zombies head about to attack Ms. Shizuka, "Ms. Shizuka, the keys!"

She nods, "Right!"

The sound of the bus doors sliding open is a relief. Quickly, Takashi, Saeko, and I stand near the doors, fending Them off as Rei, Takagi, and Kohta all rush on to the bus. The horde is drawing closer and we each head closer and closer to the door.

"Let's go." Saeko says, "Everybody's inside."

"Ladies first." He says, nodding to the door.

I give him a look that says 'Really?' but he just shrugs. With a sigh, I climb up the stairs and take a seat behind in front of Takagi by myself. Rei is right behind Ms. Shizuka, who's freaking out about the size of our ride.

"Oh! It's different from my little Bug!" She says, pointing at each part of it.

Just as Takashi is about to shut it, the sound of panicking is heard in the distance. I stand up to get a better look at the seven or so students (who aren't dead, just saying) running towards our vehicle. With hard eyes, I recognize three: Yuuki, Tsunoda, and Shido.

My teeth clench and I sit down, refusing to help.

"Who's that?" Takashi asks.

"That's Mr. Shido of class 3-A." Saeko says, a scowl in her voice.

I look over at Rei, well aware of her hatred for Mr. Shido, and notice the glare painted on her face.

Then, Takashi says the dumbest thing I've ever heard, "Wait just a little bit longer."

Rei stares at him with utter disbelief and I shake my head, unwilling to get in the middle of it.

"They're right in front of us!" Ms. Shizuka warns, "If we wait any longer, we won't be able to drive through here."

"Run 'em down." Takashi answers simply, voice deep with determination.

"If Doctor Boobs tries to drive over that many, we'll flip the bus." Takagi says blankly.

Takashi clenches his teeth and turns to bolt off the bus, but Rei is faster as she grabs hold of his arm, "We don't have to save him!" She hisses.

He turns on the top step to look at her, "Jesus! What do you mean we don't have to save him?"

"We don't have to save him!" Rei repeats, shouting this time, "We should just leave him here to die!"

He stares at her in shock, but pushes her away, surprising both of us.

This is the second time in one day that Takashi had treated Rei with such force, it's slightly surprising. Usually, he would gently pry her away or give in, but now, it's like something's clicked in him.

Everyone piles on the bus and Rei goes back to her front seat with bitterness on her face.

As soon as Mr. Shido climbs on, Takashi shouts, "Ok, go!"

"Hang on!" Ms. Shizuka says, stomping on the gas pedal.

The wheel screech to life in protest to such treatment before we speed away.

I stand up to let Takashi in the seat next to me just as the bus tips on two wheels, causing me to fall into Takashi's chest. He and I fall to the ground, me on top of him. When I look up and see our faces mere inches apart, my face heats up and I scramble to my feet.

"S-Sorry." I mumble.

He runs a hand through his hair, the light tint of red on his cheeks as well, "Uh.. D-Don't worry about it."

Takagi smirks and I pretend like I don't notice, taking a seat next to the now-sitting Takashi.

"To the gate!" Takagi says, rising herself from her seat a little.

"I know!" Ms. Shizuka snaps.

I watch as Ms. Shizuka has a war with herself, obviously having problems killing the corpses outside. But she quickly snaps out of it, pressing the gas hard and busting us through the gate.

"Are you ever going to tell us about those scars?" Takashi asks suddenly, looking at me.

My eyes widen and my breath catches in my throat. With my heart rate picking up, I gulp.

He sighs and puts a comforting hand on my head, "You know what? Forget I said anything."

The gesture catches me off guard and I look at him with confusion.

As if he just realizes what he did, his hand freezes, another blush forming on his cheeks, "Um… I uh… I didn't mean…"

There's a pause and we both laugh.

"Don't worry about it." I say, smiling.

He returns it.

"I can't believe we did it." I say truthfully, "It seems impossible now that I think about it."

"Yeah." Takashi says, glad to have something to change the subject.

"Thank God we did." Another voice says. The sound makes my skin crawls.

Takashi and I turn to see Mr. Shido who is standing up next to us, looking down on me, "I take it you've been appointed leader then?"

I look up at him, blinking with confusion, "Um, no? There's no leader. We just work together to live."

"That's not good." He says, shaking his head, "In order to survive, we'll need to appoint a leader, a leader who bears everything." Just when I think he's done, he continues, "A leader with valor, with confidence, one who will promise to protect everyone at all costs."

"You'll regret this." Rei turns to us as soon as Shido moves away, "I guarantee you'll regret you ever helped him."

I agree with her. The guy made my stomach curl.

"Shit." Another familiar voice says.

To my serious annoyment, it's Tsunoda. The guy's gruff and demanding voice is hard to mistake for anyone.

I turn to see him standing up, looking seriously pissed. His face is caked with sweat, causing his brown hair with his stupid blonde Mohawk down the middle to stick down more than usual.

"It's dangerous if we keep going to the city!" He barks, causing my muscles to tighten. "First of all, why do we have to go with Hatsune and the others? You guys are the ones who decided to go back to the city! Maybe we should have just looked for a safe place inside the school or something. If you ask me, we were better off where we were."

"He's right!" A scrawny boy agrees, "I agree with Tsunodea. We should barricade ourselves-"

"Shut up!" I growl, standing up, "That's enough! Sit the hell down Tsunoda and shut the hell up! I'm tired of your damn mouth! You want to go back to the school 'cause you think it's safer? Be my freaking guest. No one forced you to get on. Hell, if I had my way, you wouldn't have even been able to look at this bus! You want to know why we make the rules? Because _we_ were the ones who fought to get on this bus first and _you _were the ones who came on. Understand?"

During my tirade, his eyes had slipped to my bare legs and ripped skirt. With disgusting want in his eyes, he moves closer, but stops when he looks at me face, eyes narrowing.

"How about you tell me what you want to do." Saeko offers more calmly.

His looks at her with surprise, as if his entire rampage was just something out of boredom.

"I-I just can't stand that bitch!" He says, point at me.

Kohta readies his weapon, making the corners of my mouth turn up in a slight smile, but Takagi holds out her hand, signaling not to get in the way.

I shrug, crossing my arms, "Of course not. Because I rejected you."

Tsunoda clenches his teeth, remembering the embarrassment from this morning when I nailed him in the groin for groping my ass.

"Damn bitch!" He hisses, charging at me with his fists clench.

Big mistake.

Using all the frustration, agitation, and hurt, I bring back my bare leg and ram it into his gut, satisfied as he gasps for air. He falls down, landing on his side as he holds his stomach, spit covering the floor.

"Think about that next time you decided to let your hands roam." I say, glaring at him, "Douche bag."

Someone starts clapping and I look up to see Shido walking towards me once again, "Bravo, Ms. Hatsune! Very good." He compliments, stepping over the pained Tsunoda, "Simply outstanding fighting skills. You're only sixteen, am I right? I'm impressed. At any rate, a conflict like that only proves my point. We need a leader."

I raise a brow, daring him to continue.

"Surely, a young girl such as yourself would want such a difficult responsibility on her shoulders."

"So you're going to run for the position then?" Takagi guesses. She doesn't seem too faun of the idea either.

"I am a teacher, Ms. Takagi. While mature, you all are barely in your teens." He says, looking at her, "That alone makes it very clear who is qualified to lead this group. I have experience!" He states dramatically, turning to the group in the back, "Why, just moments ago I saved all of these brave students! What do you guys say?"

The idiots he saved start clapping, each looking at him with hope-filled eyes.

He bows, smiling politely, "There you have it! It's been decided. The majority seems to have made the choice quite clear, yes?"

I smirk darkly and walk over to him, "You know…" I start in whispers, "Just because they want you to be the leader doesn't mean we have to listen. You see, I don't like what you did to my best friend, so if I think you're doing anything to endanger any one of my friends, I _will_ get rid of you and you're little followers."

He turns to me with a look of burning fear, but it's soon turned to burning hatred, "Who do you think you are?"

"I think I've dealt with plenty of guys like you." I retort, "Guys who think they need to brain wash people with fear and fake comfort, you all make me sick!"

"You would know, huh?" He returns my dark smirk, the edges of his mouth curling malevolently, "I met your father just two days ago. Nice man if I do say so myself. He and my father are… strong acquaintances. Just the other day he was talking about his daughter that he had to beat to instill some kind of control in. That wouldn't be you, would it?"

My eyes widen and the anger burns in the pit of my stomach. My fists clench and I curse at the water building in my eyes.

Before I say – or do – anything I'll regret, I turn sharply, jumping off the bus as fast as I can. My blood is boiling and I can hear the familiar popping in my ears.

"Yuki!" Takashi calls after me, pulling me away from my pumping adrenaline, "Get back on the bus!"

"No." I say firmly, not turning to him, "You guys go on without me. I'll find my own way to the city."

"Idiot." He says through gritting teeth, "Get back on the bus."

"I agree with her." Rei barks, trying to get passed Takashi.

"Sit down." Takashi orders.

Surprising both of us, Rei actually listens, sitting down with a glare.

"Well, there's nothing I can do if she doesn't want to act in accordance with us…" I hear Shido spout with fake regret.

"Us?" Takashi repeats, "What us?"

My fists clench tighter and I can feel my nails digging into my skin. Quickly, I turn on my heels, determined to get as far away from him as possible.

Suddenly, someone grasps my hand and I turn to Takashi, "Wait. Seriously Yuki, get on the bus. When we get to the city, then we'll get off."

I shut my eyes tight. Curse that damn teacher. Curse my damn father. But most of all, curse the tears threatening to spill over.

I rip my arm out of his grip, standing straight without looking at him, "I'm sorry Takashi, but I don't think I can deal with him. Not now." Not without Hisashi.

"Why?" He asks, "Why are you so against it all of a sudden?"

I turn to him, surprising him, "Because that man is more of a monster than the man-eating corpses!"

His eyes widen at the tears in my own and I look away, angry.

Suddenly, the sound of a speeding vehicle and a lot of screams causes us to look over. A large community bus is heading our way, speeding at us at dangerous a speed. With a loud _crash_ , it rams head-on into three cars, tipping onto it's side and rolling towards us.

I suck in air and stare with an open mouth at the death trap.

Then, without warning, Takashi wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me against him as we're thrown through the tunnel.

I groan at my sudden headache and look up at Takashi, who is sitting up.

Following his gaze, I see that the bus, which as too long for the entrance, had crashed into the tunnel walls, stopping it dead in its tracks. It's alit with flames, burning bright.

"So much for getting back on the bus." Takashi mutters.

"Komuro!" I hear Saeko yell, "Are you all right?"

I watch as They start piling out of the bus, each moaning airily. Despite the flames their bodies are engulfed in, They seem to be walking normally – well, normally for Them. Luckily, none of them head our way. Instead, They all gravitate towards Saeko, disappearing as they stumble off the bus.

Takashi runs over to a corner, trying to keep from getting burned, "At the police station! Meet up at the East Police Station!" He shouts back to her.

"What time?"

"Seven o'clock!" He replies without hesitation, "If not today, then tomorrow at the same time!"

The sound of feet is faint before I hear the bus start up, becoming more and more faint with each second.

"They left." Takashi says.

I stay silent, not really sure what to say.

There's a loud crashing noise and we looking back to see the entire bus is lit with flames, the metal threatening to expand. Then it sparks and we both know we're screwed if we don't get a move on.

"We've gotta get out of here!" Takashi says, running towards me and grabbing my hand, "Now!"

I nod and scramble to my feet, trying to keep up with Takashi's mad-dash for the exit. Half way there, the bus explodes, almost engulfing us in flames. Thankfully, we make it out with only seconds to spare, panting like crazy.

"You're… an idiot, you know that?" Takashi says, trying to breathe.

"Well geeze… thanks for those… kind words." I mutter back, leaning on my knees.

"Are you even aware that you were almost killed more than once today?" He continues.

I look at him. He's panting as well, but his eyes are focused on me, worry set in them. I smirk a little, "What? Were you worried, Takashi?"

"Of course." He says as if it's the most obvious thing, "Why would you think I wouldn't be?"

It's a good question, more or less. We are friend, have been for almost two years, and we're pretty close, but I had always thought that his main priority was, and always will be, Rei.

And now that I think about it… He's here with me because he was worried about if I would survive off of the bus without everyone…

I sigh, straightening up, "I'm sorry, Takashi. I guess I made a mess of things, huh?"

He shrugs, straightening up as well, "It doesn't matter. Maybe it's better that we got away from him."

"You're telling me." I mutter, still angry about Shido's remark.

I feel his warm hand, ruffling my hair, "Don't stress too much." He says, "Hisashi always said you were an excellent judge of character. If you can't stand him, he must be a pretty messed up guy."

The blush burns my cheeks as I try not to stutter, "Yeah." I mumble, "Good judge of character…"

"C'mon." He say, not looking at the red burning my face, "We've got to get-"

He's cut off by a dead guy wearing a bicker helmet. With inhuman strength, he grips Takashi's uniform jacket and rams him to the concrete with a loud _oomph._

"Takashi!" I shriek.

"Damn it." He groans, struggling against the man's grip. Thanks to his helmet, the guy can't bite him, but that doesn't mean he isn't trying. I can hear the hollow sound of teeth clanking together.

"Dick." I hear him insult the man.

It would've made me chuckle if his life hadn't been in danger. Frantically, I look around for something, anything really, with enough strength to bash in the guy's face. Near the stairwell, on the bottom step, is a slab of concrete that's just dangling off of the step. Quickly, I pull it off, using most of my strength just to lift it up, and walk over to the man, smashing in down on his head, effectively stopping it.

Takashi pushes the body off of him and looks up at me.

I smile and hold out my hand, "Come on, Takashi."

He takes it, smirking a little, and I help him up.

"Did you hurt your leg?" I ask when I notice that he's avoiding putting any of his weight on it.

"A little." He admits, "But I'll be alright."

"This is when you need to depend on me." I say, wrapping his arm around his neck, "I'm not completely worthless."

He smiles, leaning on me, "I know you're not."

His words make me feel a little better and I return his smile, "But I have to ask you something."

He looks over at me, "What is it?"

"Can we really walk all the way to the city?"

"I don't think we have any other…" He pauses, straightening up, "No, wait. That guy was wearing a helmet…"

He and I walk up the stairs. On the other side of the road, on its side, is a nice-looking motorcycle with minimal damage.

Takashi picks it up and turns the key, revving up the engine. Thankfully, it ran perfectly, almost like it had never been driven.

"Do you even have your license?" I ask, smiling as I get on behind him.

"It's customary for high school students to drive without a license." He says, turning to me with a grin.

I laugh.

"You're going to have to hang on." He says.

I look at him, blinking, "You mean…"

He chuckles a little and grabs hold of my hands, wrapping them around his waist securely, "I mean like this."

I pout, glaring at him playfully, "I'm not an idiot, you know."

His chuckles continue, "Of course not. Just shy when it comes to guys, right?"

_Only when it comes to you_. I correct mentally, but don't dare say it out loud.

He starts off down the road, driving surprisingly well for someone without a license.

After a few minutes, I get comfortable and rest my head on his back, hoping he won't notice how fast my heart is beating.

And at the time, I was denying myself. The world we had known had ended and I wouldn't believe it. I wanted to stay the way I was, leaning against Takashi without a care in the world, for as long as I could.

Of course, it was a vain wish.


	4. Running in the Dead

_"Come on, Yuki." Hisashi urged the girl behind him, "Stop being such a baby."_

_ Yuki glared at him, but refused to stop struggling against his grip on her wrist, "No! I don't want to!"_

_ He sighed, "You're acting like a child."_

_ "I'm only thirteen, Hisashi. I _am_ a child." She snapped._

_ "You'll like them, Yuk. I promise." He said._

_ "I'm not worried about _me_ liking _them_." She mumbled._

_ He stopped and turned to her, smiling gently. That was Yuki for you. Always tried to seem heartless and indifferent, but cared way too much to admit._

_ "They'll like you." He promised, tugging on her wrist, "Now come on."_

_ She sighed, giving in, and stopped resisting, letting Hisashi pull her towards the school gate._

_ "Honestly Takashi! I don't understand why you can't pay attention in class. It wouldn't kill you, you know!" A fifteen year old Rei growled._

_ Takashi simply looked away, lost in thought._

_ Rei huffed, agitated, and crossed her arms, leaning against the Iron Gate with great annoyance._

_ Thankfully, in the distance she saw Hisashi and, what looked like, another girl._

_ She squinted her eyes, trying to get a better look._

_ Sure enough, Hisashi was dragging a young girl behind him. The girl, whoever she was, didn't look much older than herself. Despite that, Rei noticed with extreme distaste, she looked more developed. Her bust almost matched her own in size, and Rei had always been proud of her rack._

_ She narrowed her gaze, analyzing her closer._

_ The girl had long white hair that flowed to her lower back in layers. Her bright green eyes showed indifference, like she didn't know if she cared or not, and her face was set in the same tone. She was wearing jeans instead of the school uniform Rei had expected with a purple long-sleeve shirt._

_ But what aggravated her more than anything was the way Hisashi kept looking back at her, like she was _his_ somehow._

_ "Hey Rei!" Hisashi shouted as they got closer, not noticing the girl's jealous gaze, "I want you and Takashi to meet a friend of mine."_

_ 'Friend?' Rei thought, scoffing, 'Not likely.'_

_ But as she thought it, she could see it was true. Hisashi only looked at the girl with a type of brotherly love, nothing else. It didn't look like he wanted to kiss her, only comfort her so she wasn't scared._

_ Takashi turned from his perch on the wall and looked in the direction Rei was. He too saw the strange girl, but thought nothing of it._

_ "This is Yuki." Hisashi said, pulling the girl in front of him, "She's going to our high school in two years."_

_ Rei choked, "T-Two years?"_

_ Hisashi nodded slowly, "Yuki is only thirteen."_

_ Rei gawked at Yuki, who squirmed under her gaze._

_ How could she be two years _younger _than her?_

_ "Yuki, this is Rei." He said._

_ Yuki nodded. Hisashi had talked about this girl all the time, so much so that Yuki often thought he had a crush on her. Now that she finally saw her, she could see why._

_ "And this is Takashi." Hisashi finished, turning her shoulders towards the guy leaning against the gate without a care in the world._

_ "Hey." He said uncaringly._

_ Yuki gulped. What was she supposed to say? A familiar urge to run away engulfed her and she almost acted on it, but the girl in front of her, Rei, smiled at her._

_ "Hey, nice to meet you." She said warmly, holding out her hand._

_ Yuki looked at her, surprised, but quickly took her hand, "Nice to meet you too."_

**Somewhere near the City; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day+1 00:23 pm**

The sun had completely gone down. Now we're shrouded in darkness, only having the moonlight and the streetlights lighting our way.

Takashi and I are sitting on the motorbike, looking over the highway on the hill down to a road full of hordes of Them looking for something to eat.

"They're not coming, are they?" I mumble aloud, not really talking to anyone, "Help isn't coming."

"No." Takashi confirms, "They're not."

I sigh, leaning against Takashi's back.

It makes since, in a demented way. The entire world is undergoing the same disaster, why should a couple of high school students' survival matter to anyone?

"Hey Yuki…" Takashi starts, causing me to straighten up and look at him.

"What?" I ask.

"There's something I wanted to ask you, but there hasn't been a right time for it."

I look at him, raising an eyebrow, inviting him to continue.

"You and Hisashi… were you guys…" He trails off, looking off into space.

"No." I answer, "Hisashi and I were only friends. I only ever considered him to be my older brother and nothing else."

"But you guys were so close." He says, looking back at me.

"That's because…" I trail off, not really ready to explain everything to him.

Takashi shakes his head and turns back towards the front, "Never mind. It doesn't matter."

Moans are heard behind us and we both turn to a small horde limping towards us.

"We better go." I mumble, nudging him with my hand.

"Yeah." He agrees, "You're probably right."

We continue driving and finally enter a town outside of the city.

But it's more or less of the same.

Blood is spewed everywhere, covering the roads and sidewalks. Cars are smashed, turned over, and just plainly destroyed. But no matter where we turn, we don't see any signs of anyone – living or dead. We pass by several abandon buildings with bust windows. Some even have bloodied curtains, bloodied roofs, and bloodied bodies lying out.

It makes my stomach churn.

"There's… no one around." I mumble, unconsciously squeezing myself closer to Takashi.

"They probably ran away or died." Takashi answers.

"But if the die, they come back as Them."

He nods, "And the people who survived were probably forced out…"

My eyes land on a patrol car not far from us, parked behind a corner, "Takashi, look!" I say, almost happy, "The right side of the intersection!"

He smiles in relief before looking at me, "No license, no helmets, stolen bike; I'm just asking to be arrested, aren't I?"

I chuckle a little, "Oh please. Don't tell me you're scared of the police after fighting so many of Them."

"You've got a point." He says, chuckling as well.

But the feeling is short lived.

As soon as we round the corner, we see that it was only the front of the vehicle that wasn't destroyed by the huge eighteen-wheeler smashed into its side. The officers in the patrol car are dead, one having his head smashed into the windshield and the other dying from impact of the eighteen-wheeler.

I sigh and get off, heading for the crashed car.

"Yuki, wait! There's gas leaking from that vehicle!" Takashi yells worriedly.

"Don't worry." I say, looking back at him reassuringly, "Besides, there's probably something we can use in there."

He sighs and puts the stand up, walking over to me.

We head over to the cruiser and rummage through the pockets of each of the dead policemen, careful not to desecrate their bodies.

When we're done, we place our findings on the seat of the bike.

"Okay, so handcuffs, keys, those weird stick things that they beat people with on TV, and a gun." I say, pointing to each one. "The only thing I see that's useful here is the gun."

"Weird stick things?" Takashi repeats, chuckling a little.

I cross my arms, "Grr. What? I forgot what it was called for a minute." When he doesn't stop, I sigh, "Okay, okay. Baton. Happy now?"

He shakes his head, a few chuckles escaping, "You're right. We'd have to be closer to Them in order to hit them with a _baton_."

We both stare at the gun before I finally pipe in, "Do you know how to use it?"

"I've watched enough TV." He answers, "How hard could it be?"

His picks it up, weighing it in his hands.

"What's wrong?" I ask quietly.

"It's just… a lot heavier than I expected."

I laugh a little, "That's because it's the real thing, idiot."

He shoots me a glare, but it isn't threatening at all, "I know that."

While he plays with his new toy, I head back over to the cruiser, going over to the other side. In the cops hand is the other gun. I try to pry it out a few times, but he has a death grip on it (literally) and I'm forced to settle with just getting the bullets out.

"Hold out your hand." I say, walking back over to Takashi. He does as I ask and I set the bullets in his hand, "This should give you a few more shots, give or take."

I wipe my hands along my white leggings. Well, the tattered remains that I used to call my leggings.

"You're… incredible." Takashi says, putting the gun in his pocket.

"After everything we've been through, do you think a little blood is going to bother me?" I look over at him, smiling a little, "But do you think you'll be able to use it?"

He shrugs, "If it's anything like the TV, then I pull the trigger to fire. Should be easy." But even I can hear the doubt in his voice, "At any rate, we should get going."

I nod, grabbing hold of my crowbar and his bat, "What about these?" I ask as he climbs back on the bike, "Should we get rid of them?"

He shakes his head, "Let's keep them until we can get some target practice in. It might come in handy to have backups."

"True." I say, smirking, "But don't you feel better with something that has a little more _umph_?"

He sends me a look that says 'Does it look like it's time for jokes?'

I chuckle, setting the weapons on the side of our bike and wrapping my arm around his waist, "Come on, Takashi. You know you do."

He shakes his head, but there's definitely a light blush setting on his cheeks.

We continue driving until we come to a Shaun Gas Station. Surprisingly, despite the entire town being abandoned, the lights are still on, giving us _some_ sort of light in the pitch black night.

"We can get gas here." He explains, pulling up to the first tank we come across.

"Fine with me." I answer, "But do you think they'll still have gas?"

"They say any gas station has a tank to hold enough gas for over a thousand cars." He says, putting the kickstand up as I hop off, heading over to the tank.

"Crap." I grumble, reading over the signs plastered all over it, "Takashi, this pump is self-service. We won't be able to get any gas unless we put money or a card in it."

"Damn." He mutters. "Do you have any money? I spent my last twenty yen on a juice at the school's vending machine."

I shake my head, "My wallet's at school in… Hisashi's bag…"

He sends me a look of apology, "Wait here, okay? I'll go get some."

I nod.

"And scream if something happens."

I watch as he heads in the store and sigh, leaning against the bike.

Yesterday had been hectic and it doesn't seem like today is going to look any better. Glancing at the clock on the gas tank, I see that it's already almost two in the morning and yet, I'm not terribly tired. Sleepy? A little. But not unbearably.

Who would've thought my insomnia would come in handy?

Sudden smashing sounds causes me to jump and I look over at the store, smiling a little.

At least Takashi is finding some amusement out of this Hell hole.

My mind flashes to Takashi holding me after Hisashi's death, then to when he saved me from the rolling bus…

"Come on Yuki." I chide at myself, "Don't think about things like that. The end of the world is happening and you're stuck on some stupid crush."

Hands appear from behind me and an arm wraps itself threatening around my waist. I scream out of shock and try to get out of the man's grip, but he's too strong.

The man, whoever he is, has dark skin and a thick body. I can see the baggy brown short-sleeved he's wearing along with the big, golden ring wrapped around his finger.

"Asshole!" I hiss loudly, jamming my elbow into his gut, "Get the fuck off of me!"

His hold around my waist tightens, making it painful for me to move, and his places something cold and sharp against my neck.

A switchblade.

"Bitch, quite squirming." He snarls, placing the sharp edge against the throat threatening, "Do you want to fucking die?"

"I could ask you the same thing, bastard!" I growl.

"Yuki!" Takashi's worried voice breaks our argument as he runs out of the store to me. When he sees the man holding me captive, his eyes widen. "You let her go!"

"Let her go? You a retard!" He laughs shrilly, causing me to cringe, "You think I want one of those zombie bitches? Fuck no. This bitch has a nice body on her too. Decent-sized tits, round ass, fuck. Don't even act like you haven't gotten with her." As he's talking his arm moves up to just below my boobs, pushing them up.

I growl, eyes narrowing.

Takashi's eyes narrow dangerously as well as he glares at the asshole, "Jesus man. Are you crazy? That it?"

"Crazy? Hell yeah I am!" He says, "My family became zombies right in front of my own eyes. I had to… I had to smash everyone's head. How could I be normal?" He laughs, throwing his head back, "You think I wouldn't be fucked up after that!"

"Bastard." I hiss, shoving against him with my hands.

He's surprised momentarily, giving me enough to time to run towards Takashi, but he quickly regains himself, grabbing my chest in an attempt to stop me.

I let out a cry as he fondles with my left boob, grabbing his arm in a pathetic attempt to stop him.

The man simply laughs, rubbing it with unnecessary force, "I sure like the way your voice sounds when you scream. Nice handful you've got there. Not too big and not too small, just like your ass." As if to prove a point his rubs my butt with his free hand, taking extra care to make sure I can feel the hilt of his switchblade as his hand starts to trail up my skirt.

Takashi's menacing look actually scares _me_ a little.

"You're fuckin' her aren't ya?" The man asks, his hand trailing to the front of my thigh and heading up, "You have to be. Who wouldn't want to?" At the look on Takashi's face, he smirks, laughing deadly, and pulls down the top of my uniform, ripping the bow to shreds and revealing my black lace bra, "Holy shit! You're not, are ya? You haven't gotten to see all this?"

"Takashi!" I cry, unable to do anything else.

Takashi's hand tightens around his bat and he takes a step forward.

"Hey! Drop the bat!" The guy barks, stopping his groping long enough to place the blade back to my neck, "If you don't, I'll cut this whore wide open. And your bike! Gimme your fuckin' bike, man."

"There's no gas in it." Takashi says curtly.

"I heard you in the store! Put the cash you got in the slot and pump the mother fuckin' gas!"

"God! Don't you know any other word than fuck?" I snarl, struggling.

He looks down at me, surprised to hear me talk, before he laughs again, "Damn, man. This bitch is feisty isn't she?" He leans down, disgusting garlic breath brushing in my face, "I like that in a whore. No one likes a pussy that doesn't bite."

I see Takashi clench his teeth as he tosses the bat far from us, letting it drop to the concrete loudly.

He does as the man said and pumps the bike, "Hey, will you let us go? You can have the bike, we just need to see if our families are alright."

"Shut the fuck up!" The guy yells, "I don't give a shit about your parents. They're gonna end up just like my family did, you fucking retard."

He clenches his fist, but simply turns the knob on the bike, closing the gas thing, "It's done."

"Away from the bike!" The guy demands, "And start walking!"

Takashi takes a few steps away from the bike, but pauses, thinking. Then, without warning, he heads towards me and the man, "Come on, man-"

"Don't take one more fucking step!" The guy says, slashing at the air in front of him with the blade.

"Dude, I'm beg-"

"Shut the fuck up or I'll kill you mother fucker!"

But it's the last straw. Takashi's eyes harden and he charges at the man, finger's wrapped around something in his jacket. He pulls out the gun we had gotten earlier and puts it directly against the shirt of the man, pulling the hammer on it back.

"I've never shot a gun before," he says darkly, "but somehow I don't think I'll miss at this range."

"T-The gas… It'll blow us all up." The man stutters.

"You should've handed my girl over when I asked you to." Takashi says, pulling the trigger.

_Bang_.

It fires loudly, causing a ringing in my ears. The man falls back, hitting his head against the pump behind him, and I fall forward, crashing into Takashi's chest.

"Ahh! Bastard! You shot me, you asshole!" The man shrieks.

I cling to Takashi, breathing him in. My heart is pounding in my chest, hard enough that I'm sure he feels it, and my boobs are sore, aching from the abuse of the stranger.

"Damn it, Yuki." Takashi says, wrapping his arms around me, "Are you okay?"

The tears spill over and I bury my face entirely in his shirt, arms tightening around his waist, "Takashi… I was so scared."

"I know." He says, laying his head on my chin, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you here alone."

The man continues to yell and scream and we ignore him.

"Come on." Takashi says, pulling away and looking around, "We need to get out of here. We've made to much noise."

I wipe my eyes with my palm and follow his gaze.

He's right; a horde of Them that were hiding in the small town are limping our way, groaning and moaning hungrily.

Quickly, we get on the bike and Takashi starts up the engine.

"Wait! You can't leave me here! Please!" The man shrieks.

I look at him darkly before wrapping my arms around Takashi's waist.

I felt him let out a shaky breath.

"What's wrong?" I ask quietly as he weaves his way out of the undead.

"I was just thinking." He answers, "Stuff like that is going to happen over and over again from now on."

"You think so?" I ask, eyes widening. With a sigh, I lay my cheek against his back, shaking my head a little, "I mean… I guess so."

"Don't worry about it." He says, smiling reassuringly, "It's over now."

We left him behind, fully aware of what would happen to him. The idea, in a demented way, seemed fitting. He had tortured us, even seemed as if he was only going to use girls as rape victims and nothing more, in a way, we saved a lot of people.

But we had also killed a man. And in that, I think we lost something about ourselves.


	5. Streets of the Dead

_ "So you're coming to our high school next year?" Takashi asked the white-haired girl._

_ Yuki smirked, enjoying the surprised look on Takashi's face, "What? Surprised I'm not a complete idiot?"_

_ He rolled his eyes, leaning back on his elbows to feel the sun on his face._

_ They were sitting on a bench in the park near Hisashi's house. Takashi and Hisashi used to come to the same park as kids to play, same with him and Rei, but now, he just wanted away from the both of them, slightly agitated._

_ Yuki, who always seemed to be at the right place at the right time, was making it her job to cheer Takashi up._

_ "Come on." She said, hopping off of the table and grabbing Takashi's hand._

_ "What the-"_

_ "Don't ask questions." She scolded playfully, sending him a cheeky grin, "Just come."_

_ He sighed and rolled his eyes, letting her drag him._

_ He was used to her by now. Even if it had been only a few months ago that Hisashi had introduced them, he almost had her spontaneous and slightly bipolar attitude down to a T. She was feisty, willing to jump down anyone's throat, but caring in her own way, always making sure no one was hurt._

_ It was refreshing… in it's own way._

_ She dragged him through the park, passed the playground, and to a giant, circular fountain near the entrance of the park._

_ "Yuki, where are you taking-"_

_ Before he could finish, she shoved him in, soaking him from head to toe._

_ He splashed around, finally settling on his butt, and looked up at her laughing face, glaring, "What the hell was that for?"_

_ "You're being too serious." She complained, hands on her hips, "I thought I told you the next time you mope around, I was going to drench you."_

_ "You said deck." He corrected, standing up, "Not drench."_

_ She shrugged, "You say ta-may-to, I say ta-maw-to."_

_ "Whatever." He grumbled, a sudden idea striking him, "Help me out."_

_ She smirked and held out her hand for the drowning boy._

_ He clasped to her hand and, with a snicker, pulled her in._

_ She shrieked and landed on her butt next to him, dripping wet, "Takashi Komuro! You buttmunch!"_

_ "Buttmunch?" He laughed, "What are you? Five?"_

_ She stuck her tongue out at him, "You just wanted to see me wet, you douche bag."_

_ He shook his head, still shaking with laughter._

_ Yuki narrowed her eyes and tackled the guy in the water, pinning his arms by his head and holding his waist with her legs, "Ha!" She said, smirking as more of him was soaked, "Now what?"_

_ Takashi rolled his eyes, rolling them over so he was the one on top, pinning her down, "I think you forgot that I'm older than you."_

_ She struggled against his grip, but wasn't able to get loose._

_ Who would've thought Takashi had some fighting skills?_

_ She pouted, sticking out her lower lip, "No fair."_

_ He chuckled, but stopped when he noticed something._

_ Her long white hair, now trailing to her lower back, was spread out in the water, floating randomly all around her body. Water was dripping down her cheeks, making her light skin glow in the sun, and her shirt was clinging to her body, showing her flat stomach and curved chest._

_ Takashi's breathing hitched and a light blush spread across his cheeks._

_ Yuki tilted her head a little, smirking slightly, "Finally realizing I'm a girl?"_

_ "Takashi! Yuki!" Hisashi's voice filled the air around them._

_ They both looked over, only Yuki couldn't see because of the fountain walls._

_ "What are you two doing here?" Hisashi demanded._

_ "Just messing around." Takashi answered, a little confused. Why did Hisashi look so pissed? He was only her friend, so what was the big deal?_

_ Yuki used Takashi's momentary confusion to her advantage. With a quick and hard shove, she managed to get him to fall flat on his butt (again) in the fountain. With an accomplished smirk, she got up, looking seriously proud of herself._

_ "What are you doing?" Hisashi asked, "Why are you and Takashi rolling around in the fountain?"_

_ She shrugged, the smirk still clearly on her face, "Teaching Takashi who's boss."_

_ "Whatever." Takashi scoffed, "You can't be a boss when you cheat."_

_ "It's not cheating." She said, "It's using your surroundings."_

_ He rolled his eyes as an answer._

_ "Just get out of the fountain before you catch a cold." Hisashi said, shaking his head and rubbing his temples._

_ Yuki sighed, but smirked on last time for Takashi, "Remember: No moping."_

_ "Yeah, yeah." Takashi said._

_ Suddenly, he remembered that he _was _moping. At least, before Yuki decided to shove him in the fountain. Now, it was as if what he was upset about didn't really matter as much._

_ He watched as Yuki caught up with Hisashi._

_ "Honesty." Hisashi scolded, "Do you have to make a scene everywhere you go?"_

_ "Yep." Was her reply, along with a cheeky grin, "Don't you know me by now, Hisashi?"_

_Takashi shook his head._

_ She really was something._

**Tokonosu Bridge; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day+1 6:48 pm**

A loud explosion causes me to wake up with a jerk.

"Morning." Takashi says, glancing back at me before turning his head back to the town ahead of us, "Sleep well?"

"Surprising, yes." I ask honestly, looking over his shoulder, "You're back is really comfortable."

He shakes his head, smirking a little, but it's gone quickly.

"What happened?" I ask, glancing ahead of us, eyes widening.

The road ahead is filled with cars parked along the road, some are one fire, some are in pieces. A few of Them are roaming around, but not nearly as many as I would expect with such noise. People (crazy-looking people, I might add) are shooting the few around, spraying them with shotgun pellets. The ones that aren't hit in the head get back up only to be shot down again. People (the ones that don't look deranged or dead) are screaming trying to escape the psychopaths with weapons shooting at anything that walks.

"It's like a war." I breathe, tightening my arms around Takashi unconsciously, "What the hell…"

"I know." Takashi says, "And we have front row seats."

He revs up the motorbike, glancing back at me, "Dangerous place to be. Hold on tight."

"Don't have to tell me twice." I mumble, wrapping my arms more firmly around his waist and pulling myself against him.

The bike goes on its back wheels as we speed through, trying to avoid the murderers. When the front wheels land back on the ground, I'm pushed roughly against Takashi, whose concentrating. One of the maniacs – the one with lovely tattoos (sarcasm) and a pretty big shotgun in his hands – notices us and points towards us. Shortly after, the lot of them is rush at us, trying to stab, shoot, and charge at us. Skillfully, more so than I thought he could, Takashi weaves around them, avoiding the man-eating dead on one side and the deranged living on the other side.

One guy shoots one of Them with his shotgun, knocking it against a burning car. The flames roar to life and almost burn us, but Takashi manages to get us away in the nick of time.

"We're not dead, so why are they shooting at us?" I demand, looking back at the pissed off men.

"The whole world's going crazy, Yuki." He says, eyes tightening, "Even us."

"Even us…" I echo, laying my head against him.

He speeds down the road, jumping on the sidewalk to avoid more parked cars. Suddenly, I hear him gasp. With a sharp turn, he heads away from Tokonosu Bridge.

"What's going on?" I ask, sitting up.

He slows down, coming almost to a complete stop, "Look."

I follow his gaze, eyes widening.

The bridge is crowded with people bustling to get through. Some have left the safety of their car and are travel on foot. Others are trying to talk to loves one that are transforming. Children are crying, asking for help. People are screaming, demanding to be let through. The police have a gate set up farther along, however, and won't allow anyone through – not even the healthy living.

"At this rate," He says, "we don't know when we'll be able to cross."

I sigh, "You're right. What now?"

"We'll head to Onbetsu Bridge. Ms. Shizuka and the rest are probably heading that way, but chances are traffic is backed up there too. At any rate, we might be able to meet up with them there."

"But if Shido's with them…" I trail off, anger rising at even the thought.

Takashi lets out a breath, "I have this, don't I?" He says, holding up his jacket to reveal the gun now placed in between his belt and pants. "If he gives us trouble, we'll force him to leave."

I nod.

"What did he say to you anyway?" Takashi asks, "On the bus, what did he say to make you so mad?"

I sigh a little, giving in, "He… mentioned something about my father."

"Your father? I thought you lived with Hisashi."

"I do… did." I amend, "But my father is still very much alive, even my mother for that matter. At least they were before all hell broke loose."

He stops the bike and turns to me, "If your parents are alive, then why did you live with Hisashi?" His voice isn't demanding or aggressive, simply curious, like he wants to know more because he cares.

"I-It's complicated." I stutter, avoiding his gaze, "My f-father sort o-of… disowned me."

"Sorry." He says, starting the bike again, "I keep prying, don't I?"

"It's okay." I mumble, "I keep dodging."

We start off again, heading the few miles towards Onbetsu Bridge. When we're mere minutes from it, we get a glimpse of it.

It's no better than Tokonosu Bridge.

Takashi stops the bike, looking at the chaos with thoughtful eyes.

"It's the same here." I say, thinking out loud, "What should we do? Try another bridge?"

He shakes his head, "It's probably some sort of regulation. I'm sure all of the bridges are the same as well, no point wasting fuel to find out."

I nod in agreement, thinking our options over.

My gaze turns towards Onbetsu River. It's always high during this time of year, with rain season and all, so swimming across was a loss cause. Even if it were possible, how would we carrying the guns and supplies over? Swimming is hard enough with such a strong current, but carrying things over would be suicide.

Takashi flips open his cell, cussing, "Damn it. Still no service."

"It's no use." I say, leaning on his shoulder, "The towers are probably out in this city."

"Out?" He repeats, "How?"

I shrug, "People hitting them with vehicles, Them climbing on them to get a person causing it to tumble over, take your pick."

"You're supposed to be the one who cheers people up, Yuki." He says, shaking his head, "Now you're only bringing me down."

My eyes widen a little at the comment and I smile, "Cheers people up? Takashi, do you even know me? I'm the biggest pessimist alive."

"True." He agrees, "But you never used to speak your doubts out loud."

"That was before my doubts were important." I answer simply, shrugging, "Now they could mean the difference between life and death."

He shrugs his shoulders in agreement.

A sudden, airy _bang_ causes me to straighten myself up, looking around, "Gunshot?"

"No…" He says, eyeing the bridge, "that was something else…"

"Like a nail gun…" I finish, eyes widening.

"Hang on." He orders, revving the engine and taking off.

I grab hold of him to keep from falling backwards.

He speeds towards a pick-up truck ramp, the kind that lifts the cars actually _on _the truck itself, and he increases his speed.

"Takashi, are you nuts!" I yell just before I burry my face in his back.

We ride up the ramp, going air born as we make it over the bridge's walls. The bike lands on the concrete with a screech and I look up to see we made it just in time to help Ms. Shizuka and the others with a small horde of zombies.

"Ready?" Takashi asks.

I grab the crowbar on the side of the bike, nodding.

He hits the breaks hard, "Now!"

I jump off, barely landing on my feet in front of two of Them. Without hesitation, I bring the crowbar back and smash in the temple of one, knocking him in the other. They splash over the railing, landing in the water. Quickly, without wasting any time, I head over to Kohta and Rei, who are battling five of them. Takashi skids over to Ms. Shizuka and Takagi, slamming his back into three zombies and knocking them over the railing as well.

With quick and deliberate actions, Rei and take out two each, both of us giving the last one a blow to each side of the temple at the same time.

Everyone looks around at the mess, no sounds besides our heavy breathing.

Then, without warning, Rei tackles me into a hug, causing us to crash to the floor.

"Yuki!" She wailed, "I thought you were going to die! Oh I'm so glad you're okay! I'm so sorry I was such a bitch to you! Please don't ever run off again!"

I laugh, returning her hug, "It's okay, Rei. I forgive you, but can you let me breathe?"

She pulls away, sitting on her knees in between my legs, "Sorry."

Takashi laughs, sweat-dropping a little.

"I take it this means Tokonosu Bridge is also blocked." Saeko says, interrupting our moment.

Takashi turns to her, nodding, "Right. There's no way out."

"I have to confess, I'm really glad you're okay, Komuro." She says with relief.

I narrow my eyes at her a little as Rei pouts, glaring at the two.

"Glad you're alright too." He says, smiling.

Takagi grips his arm, looking up at him with a scowl, "What about me?"

"I'm glad you're okay too." He says, "All of you."

There's a pause and we all look over to Kohta, who looks like he's in love.

"What are you doing?" Takashi asks.

"Komuro! What is this? How did you get it? Where are the extra bullets?" He gushes, lovingly stroking the gun, "This is a Smith & Wesson's M37 Airweight like the police use, right?"

"I'll tell you about it later." He replies as I laugh a little.

Rei and I stand up and I take my stand by Takashi, sending Saeko a hidden look. She raises an eyebrow at me, challenging me in some way. I act as if I don't care, turning back to the group.

"Why are you guys here anyway?" I ask, mainly to Takagi.

It's Saeko who answers, amusement in her voice, "We got off the bus because the road was blocked, but we haven't been able to cross."

I shake my head, "It's pointless to try and cross it. The water's too high from all the rain. Besides, it might ruin our weapons."

"Then what should we do?" Rei asks, taking a seat on the edge of the bridge.

"I have a thought." Ms. Shizuka pipes in, "It's been such a stressful day, why don't we just call it quits for now?"

"C-Call it quits?" Kohta repeats.

"Why yes." She says, holding her hands together as she looks happily at all of us, "My friend's flat is nearby, just a short walk from here."

"You're boyfriend's place?" Takagi guesses.

"Oh no no no no!" She says quickly, waving her face in utter denial, "It's just my girlfriend's apartment. She's always busy working and traveling with her job, so she gave me a key to take care of the place."

"Is it a high-rise?" Kohta asks, thumb and index finger to his mouth in contemplation, "Does it have a good view of the surroundings?"

"Oh yes." She smiles, "It's a duplex standing alongside the river. There's a convenient store nearby too. Oh! And a car! You know, the one that looks like a tank and drinks gas? Biiiiiig!" She throws her arms out around her as an exaggeration.

"I don't care about a car so much as a shower." Takagi pipes in, "I don't think I've ever felt so dirty."

"I couldn't agree with you more." Kohta says, goggling at Takagi.

With a good kick, she sends poor Kohta flying, "What do you mean by that!"

"I'll go check on it with her." Takashi tells me, heading towards his bike, "You guys can follow after us after we clear a path there."

I nod.

"Come on, Ms. Shizuka." Takashi orders, propping up his bike.

"Oh, ok!" She cheered, stepping over to him and sliding on. I gnash my teeth when she clings to him like she's his girlfriend or something.

"Is it me, or does she look too close?" Rei asks, causing me to jump a little.

I laugh uneasily, rubbing my head, "I-I wouldn't know." I say nervously, "I think it's just your jealousy talking."

Rei huffs, crossing her arms, "Don't try to hide it, Yuki. I know you have a thing for Takashi."

My eyes widen and I look at her, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb." She says, "You've liked him for a while now, haven't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I say defensively, "Come on. We have to follow after them, remember?"

Her eyes tighten a little, but she sighs, given up.

We head behind Takashi's bike by a good distance, eyes peeled for any sign of the undead. Surprisingly, there aren't many around, only a few here and there that are easily dealt with by Saeko and Rei. After only a few blocks, we come to a fairly, decent-sized house. A nice, long fence trailed from the ground over the steps, following them all the way up to the door.

"Wow." Takashi mutters, looking at the military car, "It _does_ look like a tank."

"Told you~" Ms. Shizuka sings, looking at it.

Kohta's eyes turn into hearts at the sight of the vehicle, "A Humvee~"

"What kind of girlfriend does Ms. Shizuka have?" Takagi asks, staring at the massive contraption.

"We probably don't want to know." I say, looking over at Rei, "_They_ probably won't be able to get over the fence, so we should be able to sleep safely tonight."

Just as she's about to nod, more than twenty of Them start crawling out of the crevice of every turn over the fence, lazily groaning at us.

"There're already some over the fence." Saeko says, as if to spite me, "Looks like we'll have to get rid of them."

I nod, clutching my crowbar tighter.

"Is this okay, Takashi?" Takagi asks, handing Takashi another crowbar.

"Yeah." He says, taking it from her and pushing up his sleeves. "Yuki, open the door."

I grip the dent that supposed to be the handle and pull it open. Immediately, we go on the defense, attacking as soon as the doors are open.

Looking back, the moment my crowbar connected with the first undead, I knew we had gone through a disturbing change. Takashi's eyes were cold and hard, no remorse or hint of hesitation in them. Rei was the same. We were no longer fighting to escape or trying to run away, we were fighting to survive. Before they could even attack, we got to them. We were well aware of what we were doing, but there were no second thoughts.

We were warriors fighting a war.

And there was no way we were losing.


	6. In the Dead of Night

_ The white-haired girl sat perched on a lunch table outside of her middle school. Her green eyes showed extreme boredom as she stared up at the bright sky, minding her own business._

_ She couldn't wait to be in the same school as Takashi and the others, that was for sure. At least then, she could hang out with someone. Here, it was like everyone judged her before knowing her._

_ "Are you Yuki Hatsune?" A high-pitched, slightly annoying voice asked._

_ Yuki looked down to find a petite brunet staring at her with boring grey eyes. The girl's hair was short, cropped just above her shoulders, with bangs outlining her dark skin. Her school uniform matched Yuki's: white, long-sleeve with a maroon bow and matching skirt. Of course, as if to show off her money, the brunet had on expensive-looking, shiny black heels. They made Yuki's flats look like trash._

_ When the girl started tapping her foot, Yuki realized she had asked her a question._

_ "Yeah, I am." She answered, bored._

_ The girl smiled warmly, "I'm Miku Hamasaki, we're in the same gym class."_

_ Realization crossed Yuki's eyes._

_ This was the girl that served on her team in volleyball today._

_ "Hey." Yuki said, suddenly uncomfortable._

_ Why was this girl talking to her? She had pretended like she didn't exist earlier in class._

_ "I was just wondering where you got all those marks along your legs." Miku put bluntly._

_ Yuki's eyes widened and she cursed at the gym teacher for not allowing her to wear long pants like she wanted._

_ Quickly, she controlled herself, face going blank, "They're nothing big."_

_ The girl snorted, a noise that aggravated Yuki to no end, "Please. I don't care whether their big or not. If you're trying some trick to get all the guys to notice you, then your sadly mistaken. And using those as a ploy to get people to care about you is just sick."_

_ Yuki looked at her, surprised. It was the first time someone had mentioned her scars in such a way. Of course, it was also the first time someone found out about them._

_ Besides Hisashi, that is._

_ "What the hell are you talking about?" Yuki growled, pissed._

_ Who the hell did this girl think she was?_

_ "You know what I'm talking about." Miku said, unfazed. The girl everyone was infatuated with, this Yuki Hatsune, was always quiet and never spoke out of line. She knew Yuki wouldn't do anything and with no one around, it was the perfect time to put the girl in her place. "This pity-party act you've got going on isn't going to work anymore because I know what your real game is."_

_ Yuki's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing, silently glaring at the girl._

_ "Eventually, those upperclassmen you hang out with are going to see it too." Miku continued, smirking, "And they'll hate you for it."_

_ That was the last straw._

_ With enough force to ruin her pretty nose job, Yuki cocked back her fist and bashed it into the princess's nose. Miku fell back on to the concrete walkway, holding her bleeding face._

_ "You bith! You brokeh my nothe!" She cried._

_ Yuki hopped down, glaring darkly at the girl, "Don't bring Hisashi and them in it ever again. Or I'll break more than just your nose."_

_ She turned quickly, desperate to get away. Her eyes burned with fresh tears at what the girl said._

_ "__**Eventually, those upperclassmen you hang out with are going to see it too. And they'll hate you for it."**_

_** "They'll hate you for it."**_

_Hisashi walked up the steps to his house, surprised to see Yuki sitting at his door with her knees tucked under her chin, arms around her legs._

_ "Yuki?" He said gently, kneeling next to her._

_ Hisashi didn't hate her, but that didn't mean Takashi or Rei would feel the same. What if they took it the same way that Miku girl did?_

_ She couldn't bear the thought of them hating her. She wouldn't be able to handle it. Especially Takashi..._

_ Yuki looked up, "I'll live with you." She said, looking back down quickly, "But Takashi and Rei can never know why or how or even that I am." _

_ He studied her for a minute. Her eyes were swollen red from crying and her cheeks were still wet._

_ "Alright." He agreed, "They won't know anything."_

**Rika Minami's Apartment; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day+1 11:17 pm**

"Come on, Yuki!" Rei whines, "You don't have to be shy! We're all friends here!"

I shift my weight from one foot to the other, uncomfortable.

We're already in Ms. Shizuka's friends house, who's name she said was Rika something or other, standing at the bottom of the winding staircase. Kohta and Takashi are upstairs, completely restricted from coming down with us, doing God only knows what.

But my problem is Takagi and Rei want me to strip, completely I might add, and bathe with them.

Help!

"It's not about being shy, Rei." I mumble, avoiding her gaze, "I just don't want to take a bath yet."

"But Yuuuuuki!" Rei whines, dragging out my name.

"Cut it out, Miyamoto." Takagi snaps, grabbing my wrist roughly, "I'll take care of her. You go ahead and join the others."

Before Rei or I can protest, Takagi drags me to a bedroom, shutting the door.

I stare at her in utter disbelief as she flips the light switch, light flooding the room.

"Okay, spill." She orders, crossing her arms.

I blink, completely surprised, "Spill? Spill what?"

She scoffs, "Don't play dumb with me, Hatsune. It's obvious you're hiding something. Now spill."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Takagi." I growl, returning her gesture and crossing my arms as well.

"You have scars all up and down your legs, you flitch when someone raises a hand to you, you cringe when you hear someone getting hit, and the moment a hand is touching you, you become rigid." She looks me in the eye, "You were abused, weren't you?"

My eyes widen, "W-W-What are y-you talking a-about?" I stammer, trying to regain myself.

She rolls her eyes, "If you aren't, be my guest and strip right now. Prove me wrong."

I tug at my uniform shirt, looking to the side.

"That's what I thought." She says. Her voice, however, doesn't sound proud or accomplished like it usually does when she gets something right. Instead, it holds something else.

Regret. Pain. Worry.

She sighs, "You know, no one's going to judge you if they find out."

"It's not about that." I say, still avoiding her gaze, "It's just… I don't want Rei and Takashi to know." Especially Takashi.

"And why not?" She asks, arms falling to her sides.

"It's just a thing I have." I reply, "There's more to the abuse than just the abuse itself. I have scars everywhere, some more ghastly than others, and I don't want them to see that side of me, the side that was so awful, my own father had to beat to fix."

"God, you're so stupid." She says, sighing, "Look. Whatever his reasons were, your father is the one to blame for those scars, not you. Having them doesn't make you an awful person, it doesn't make you anyone different, it just makes you strong. And if Takashi and Miyamoto are any sort of friends, the only thing they'll care about is why you didn't tell them sooner."

I look at her, raising my eyebrows.

Is she trying to comfort me?

Her own eyes widen, "Don't get me wrong. I don't like you." She says quickly, "But I just thought I'd tell you why you're stupid."

I smile, "Thanks Saya."

She clicks her tongue, crossing her arms again, "Don't get all mushy on me."

"Don't even try to act cold." I say, smirking, "You actually care about us, don't you?"

"Please." She scoffs, "I just need you because you're a strong fighter."

I laugh, completely unaffected by her mood, and head to the door, opening it, "I guess we should get cleaned up then, huh?"

She nods, trying to keep her face indifferent, but I see the hint of a smile.

We head out of the bedroom, flipping off the lights, and through the hall. Across from the curling stairs is the door to the bathroom.

I open the door and step in, Takagi not far behind me.

"'Bout time." Rei says, leaning farther into the hot bath water.

Takagi rolls her eyes, "Blame her." She says, pointing at me with her thumb, "She seems to think she's too good to bathe with us."

I shoot her a dry look, but sigh.

I really shouldn't be surprised.

Takagi starts unbuttoning the shirt of her uniform, revealing a pink cami that's barely containing her assets.

"Come on, Yuki!" Rei cheers, "Strip!"

I sigh and follow Takagi's lead, unbuttoning the first few buttons on my shirt. The tie (conveniently) had been ripped off some time during our escape, so all I have to do is slip it off, revealing my purple bra and white skin.

"Wow." Ms. Shizuka pipes in, "Such pretty skin."

_She says that now._ I think, still terrified to fully strip.

Takagi sends me a hurry-up-stupid-you're-only-making-yourself-look-suspicious look before sliding off her skirt and underwear, joining Saeko on a stood next to the shower heads.

With a deep breath, I let the long-sleeves fall off, softly landing to the ground.

Everyone breathes in sharply, almost in sync, staring with surprised eyes at my arms. Takagi is the only one who continues what she's doing without looking at me.

Besides the scars along my forearms, there's also a long scar trailing from my left side diagonally up to just below my right breast. That one, unlike the others, was not caused by me. Luckily, over the years, it had faded, now only line my stomach with a dark, tan-line like line.

"Yuki…" Rei stares, completely unsure of what to say, "Those are…"

"It only gets better." I crack darkly, pulling off my bra.

It's a morbid joke, but I hate all the stares; they're suffocating me.

I pull off my skirt and green underwear in one go, taking the shredded leggings with them. The scars are now more visible, practically sparkling with spite in the brightly lit bathroom. Small ones, like the ones trailing from my knees down, are less noticeable, but still very much there.

Nervously, I grab my arm with my opposite hand, covering my breasts as much as possible as the three girls stare with confusion.

"You act like you've never seen a naked girl before." Takagi snaps.

That causes all of them to look down. Saeko, whose long violet hair is setting in a small puddle of water, offers me a seat next to her, pulling up another stool.

"Thanks." I say sheepishly, uncomfortable.

"Don't mention it." She says, smiling over at me, "We just got done discussing how big Ms. Shizuka is."

I blink at her, "Big? You mean…" My eyes widen and Saeko chuckles.

"I'm only saying something because you're fairly big for your age." She says, smiling.

"I'm only two years younger than you." I say defensively, rinsing out my blood-stained hair.

She smirks, "Of course."

"They don't feel fake." Rei says, stepping out of the bath and joining us by the mirrors, "Not that I know what fake feels like."

I laugh, "Well I'm glad you approve."

"Gahh!" Rei shrieks, checking Saeko out, "More big ones!"

Takagi flees, heading to the side of the bathtub as Rei grabs Saeko's boobs, firmly holding them in her hands.

"Ow!" Saeko says, cheeks reddening.

"Rei, I don't think you need to do that." I say, touching her shoulder.

"Do you see these?" She asks, holding them towards me, "How can they all be so big?"

I chuckle, shaking my head, "Seriously Rei, you're on crack."

"Oh? Am I?" Her grin creeps me out.

Before I can do anything, she tackles me onto the bathroom tiles, getting me into a pile of water.

"Why is it that you're old than me, yet you have the same breast size?" She questions, grabbing firmly onto my assets, "It's so unfair!"

"Did you forget who you're tackling?" I ask, laughing as I roll us over, successfully pinning her, "Ha! Don't mess with Yuki Hatsune."

"No fair!" She whines, wriggling around, "Lemme up!"

"Only if you promise not to touch anyone else's boobs." She nods, "Or butts." I add, just to be safe.

"Okay, okay, fine." She says.

I release her, standing up and getting into the bath with the rest. Sometime during our wrestling match, Saeko had found her way to the bath as well. Now we were all sitting around, soaking.

"So are you going to tell us what those are?" Rei asks after a few moments of comfortable silence.

I sink into the bubbles, hiding my mouth in the hot water.

"Isn't it obvious?" Saeko asks quietly.

"It's just… why didn't you tell me?" She looks at me, looking upset, "I would've understood."

My shoulders slump, engulfing themselves in the water as well, and seconds tick by while they wait for an answer.

"She obviously didn't want to make you worry." Takagi answers as she turns around to rest her head on the white walls of the tub.

"Let's talk about something different." Ms. Shizuka pipes in, smiling, "How about we see if Ms. Miyamoto can avoid my canon?"

"Cano-?" She's cut off by Ms. Shizuka, who brings her boobs together, causing water to squirt out at Rei's face.

"Ah!" Rei shrieks, causing the rest of us to laugh.

She does it again, but Rei manages to avoid it. With a last attempt, she gets Rei right in between the eyes and Rei tumbles down beside Saeko, who shields her face with her hands to keep from getting squirted.

I yawn a little and stand up, "I'm going to raid the closet for clothes then look for something to drink."

"There's a few cases of beer and liquor in the cabinets." Ms. Shizuka says, eyes shining dreamily, "You can help yourself with it."

I nod, stepping out of the warm water and into the cold air, "You might want to get out." I add before leaving, "I think you're starting to get a little loopy from the steam."

"She's right." Takagi says, yawning, "Besides, I need to get some sleep."

I shut the door behind me and walk across the wooden floors, a path dripping behind me. Quickly, in a hurry to get out of the cold, I open up a door near the kitchen and slip in, switching the light on. The room is big, which isn't surprising considering the rest of the house, and looks unused. A bed in the far right corner is made with deep brown covers with a pretty blue body pillow across the oak backboard. There's a sliding door that I take to be the closet made out of the same material as the backboard. I stride over to the closet and open the door, pulling out a black long-sleeve.

The door opens behind me and I turn to see Takagi and Rei coming in.

"We need clothes too." Takagi says with a shrug.

I move out of their way and move over to a small dresser near the giant bed. Inside, luckily, are pairs of underwear. I grab one and start getting dressed, pulling the long-sleeve over my head as Rei and Takagi take their pick of the underwear.

The shirt is large, but tight. It goes all the way over my butt, covering it just enough, and the sleeves go to the middle of my palms. However, it still shows my curves, practically sticking to me like a second skin.

After dressing, I make my way to the kitchen, meeting up with Saeko.

"What's up?" I ask, watching as she raids the fridge.

"Looking for ingredients for tonight's dinner and tomorrow's snack." She says, pulling out several vegetables.

"Nice thinking." I say, "But I think I'd much rather have something strong right now."

She chuckles and heads to the stove, allowing me to pass to the cabinets.

Just as Ms. Shizuka said, there are several brands of whiskey, beer, and scotch. I grab a random bottle and head to the counter in the middle of the kitchen, sitting on a stood.

"Want some?" I ask, popping open the top.

Saeko looks back at me before shaking her head, "It might be better if I was clear headed."

I shrug, taking a swig. It burns all the way down and I try to keep from making a face at the awful taste.

"Suit yourself." I finally answer.

After two or three long gulps, I start watching Saeko cook. In the dim light, I can tell she's only wearing an apron and a black thong, but I try not to dwell on that fact, watching as she places in each vegetable and spice with gracefulness.

"Gosh." I say, leaning on my hand, "Why can't I look graceful doing anythin'?"

She looks back at me with puzzlement, "What are you talking about?"

I wave it off, taking another swig.

Suddenly, Takashi steps in, opening the fridge as if he's completely oblivious to Saeko and I hanging out.

"Komuro, late night snack with be ready soon." Even in my buzzed stupor, I don't miss the seductive, teasing voice she has.

"Man, I love girls' apartments." He says, pulling out a fruit juice box and turning to us, "Everything's so sta-"

He stops dead when he sees Saeko's outfit, cheeks blazing with red, "Uhh Stocked! I mean stocked!"

She looks over at him, clueless, "What's wrong?"

I die with laughter, clutching my stomach with one and covering my mouth with the other in an attempt to keep it down.

"Uhh, what?" He asks, stepping back, "N-Nothing."

Realization crosses her face (and I swear a hint of pleasure) as she pulls on the apron with her thumbs, "Oh, you mean this old thing? Dreadful isn't it? I couldn't find anything that fights me, so until laundry's done, I'm stuck wearing this." She smiles slightly, "I guess it's a little too revealing."

_Like it's a bad thing._

My eyes narrow, the laughter stopping.

"Oh no." Takashi covers quickly, covering his pants with his maroon shirt, "I hadn't notice a tit- a thing. We should be prepared; they could come a tit- attack."

She chuckles, smiling warmly, "You and Hirano are taking such good care of us and that's sweet. I want you to know how much that means to me." She pauses, her voice growing tempting, "I mean, I really want you to know."

His eyes widen, a light blush still on his face.

"Hey, Takashi!" Rei says, breaking whatever moment Saeko is trying to create, "Come up here."

Thank god for Rei's neediness!

"You'd better pay attention to her." Saeko says, turning back to the boiling pot of water. "At times, a girl likes to pretend to be helpless."

"Do you, Ms. Busujima?"

She pauses, then giggles, "I wanna be called Saeko by my friends."

"Uhh… Sa… Sa…"

She giggles again and I gnash my teeth, "You can call me that after practicing a little."

"Come oooooon!" Rei barks, "Get up here, Takashi! Takashi!"

He sighs and Saeko laughs a little.

With great force, he turns away, heading to the steps.

"Stop glaring at me like that." Saeko says when he's out of earshot, looking back at me.

"You did all that stuff on purpose, didn't you?" I growl, gripping the bottle.

She smirks, turning back to her food, "A little." She admits, "You like him, don't you?"

I lay my head down, using my arms as a pillow, "Like it matters." I mumble.

"You never know." She says, "He did run after you when you left the bus."

"That's just because Takashi's a good person with a sense of responsibility." I say, sitting up long enough to take another gulp from my clear bottle, "It's not romantic or anything."

"I don't know about that." She answers, sounding deep in thought, "Either way, are you willing to let her take him without a fight?"

"Rei's my best friend." I defend, slamming my arm lazily on the counter, "She lost her boyfriend today and can't get a hold of her parents. She needs someone to-"

"It's the same for you too, though, right?" She interrupts, "After all, you were close to that Hisashi guy as well."

"But-"

"Look, it's none of my business." She says, "I just thought you'd be more competition than this."

The sound of Takashi yelling causes me to jump and Saeko looks over at me.

_Are you willing to let her take him?_

I shove myself out of the chair, grabbing my bottle just in case, and head toward the steps.

After making it to the near top, I meet Takashi and Rei. Rei, who has tears in her eyes, is holding on to Takashi's sleeve with one hand, the other placed on his chest, palms flat. Takashi is looking at her with pain in his eyes, lowering his forehead to her.

It looks as if they're about to kiss.

The jealousy burns twice as much as usual, worse than the alcohol in my stomach, and I bite back tears, taking a much more furious gulp of the yellow liquid. The bottle, however, slips from my wet fingers, falling to the step below my feet. The liquid soaks the collar of my shirt, but that's the least of my worries. The glass bottle breaks into thousands of tiny pieces, one of the pieces cutting open my foot.

I hiss in pain, bending over to check out the damage.

"Yuki, are you alright?" Takashi asks, worry thick in his voice.

"Fine." I answer bitterly, pulling out the giant piece of glass, "Go back to whatever it was you were doing."

"Oh shit, Yuki, you're bleeding." He says, bending over as well.

"I said I'm fine." I say curtly, straightening up, "Just dropped my drink is all."

"You reek of alcohol." He wrinkles his nose, standing up, "Are you drunk?"

"No." I mutter. It isn't a lie, more or less. I may be a little lightheaded and my vision may be slightly blurry, but I'm not drunk.

Yet.

"Come on." He steps over the mess, landing on a step below me, "We'll get your foot cleaned up."

I nod and almost laugh at myself.

God, I'm so pathetic. One nice thing from him and I give in. How sad.

I step down, attempting to follow him, but a sharp pain pierces my right foot, causing me to cringe, "Ow." I mumble.

"Looks like there's more glass in your foot." Takashi says, turning to me and leaning down to inspect it again, "I guess I'll have to carry you."

"Wha-"

Before I can even finish my sentence, Takashi sweeps me up bridal-style, taking me down the stairs.

With a small squeal, I wrap my arms around his neck, glaring a little.

He chuckles.

"Put me down!" I order. When he doesn't respond, I try to sound a little more forceful, "Takashi Komuro! If you don't put me down this instant- _oof_."

I land on my butt on the comfy-looking bed in the room I had raided earlier for clothes.

"Stay here. I'll be right back." He says, heading out of the room.

I cross my arms, huffing.

Bossy, pushy, no good, perverted…

He comes back with a white, first-aid kit in his hands. Placing it next to me, he kneels and lifts my injured foot on his knee, inspecting the damage.

"There's a few pieces stuck in your foot, but I think I'll be able to get them out." He says, opening the white box without bothering my foot.

"I could've told you that." I grumble, arms still crossed.

He smirks, but doesn't say anything, pulling out tweezers and focusing on the glass pieces.

All in all, there are about four pieces stuck in my foot, one of them being the size of a large paper clip (no wonder the damn thing hurt). After pulling each out, one by one, and applying Peroxide, he wraps my foot securely in gauze.

"There." He says, looking into my eyes, "All done."

"Thanks." I mumble, looking away.

He doesn't move from his place, still kneeling on the ground with my foot propped on his knee. When I finally look at him, I see his eyes are now focused on the defined scar treading along my outer thigh. His fingers gently run from my knee up to the scar, trailing it with a feathery light tough.

It actually causes me to shiver.

"Are you ever going to tell me what happened?" He asks lowly, voice deep with concern as his hand rests on the scar, palm flat.

"M-My father…" I whisper, looking at my hands lying on the comforter beside my butt, "did it."

His eyes widen and I try to keep from looking at him, looking at anything _but_ him.

"Your father…" He breathes, voice blank.

I nod, just a slight down motion, still not looking at him, "It was the last one, but it was also the worst one." I mumble, "Made with his custom-made knife."

His hand cups my leg, spreading his fingers out, and he brings the other one around my neck, pulling me against his chest.

"Shit." He breathes, barely audible, "Damn it, Yuki. I don't know what to say."

I try to swallow the lump in my throat and wrap my arms around his waist, returning the hug, "Just… don't say you hate me." I mumble, "Don't hate me. Please."

"Idiot." He says, removing his hand from my thigh to wrap it around me, pulling me closer, "I would never hate you for something that's not your fault. Ever."

My eye well up with tears and I curse myself for not being able to keep it together.

Suddenly, a dog barks, causing us to pull away and look towards the door.

"Is that a… dog?" I ask, looking at him.

Takashi shakes his head, "Some things never change, even now."

"But it sounds close." I say.

He straightens up and, with a sigh, he says, "Better go check it out."

"I'm coming with you." I say, standing up. There's still a dull pain in my foot, but I ignore it.

Takashi watches me for any signs that I might fall over. When he sees that I'm okay, he heads out, me following shortly behind him.

We head through another room and out on a dark balcony.

"Hira-"

He's interrupted by Kohta, who holds out a gun for him.

"What?"

"Bad news, man." He says, glaring at the dark streets below.

My eyes widen at the sight of dozens of undead, reaching out to us.

It was then that I realized something dark.

Their hunger, it would never end. No matter what we'd do, they'd still keep coming.

They'd never end.


	7. Dead Night and the Dead Ruck

_ A white-haired girl opened the door slowly, trying very hard not to let the old, wooden junk screech, but it didn't help much._

_ "Where the hell have you been?" A demanding, booming voice echoed so loud, Yuki was surprised the neighbors didn't wake up._

_ "I-I was at a-a f-f-friend's house." She mumbled quietly, avoiding eye-contact._

_**Slap.**_

_ The palm of his hand connected with her cheek with so much force, her head snapped to the right and her eyes started to water._

_ "The hell you were. Since when do you have friends?" He barked, towering over her by at least four or five inches._

_ Yuki's hand automatically touched her stinging cheek, "I… met them… at school."_

_ Damn. Her voice cracked._

_**Crack.**_

_Her back hit the door, the back of her head smashing into the wooden paneling._

_ "Are you _crying_?" He asked, disgusted._

_ "No." She answered, thankful when her voice didn't give away the wetness trailing down her cheeks._

_ His big hands grabbed her shoulders roughly, slamming her roughly into the door again, "Whose house were you at?"_

_ "The Takagi's estate." She lied quickly, trying to keep from whimpering._

_ His grip loosened as he eyes her, grey eyes piercing her, "So you befriended Saya Takagi like I requested?"_

_ I nodded meekly, eyes shut tightly._

_ "Good." He said, a barely-there reply, "Don't fuck this up for me, understand?"_

_ With one last shove, she heard his loud footsteps walk away and slunk to the floor, her head resting on the door as soft sobs escaped uncontrollably._

**Rika Minami's Apartment; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day+2 01:24 am**

Saeko is standing next to me, the binoculars in her hand. I watch as Takashi's grip on the gun tightens, his eye hardening at the destruction below. The cries and screams of innocent people are deafening and I cover my ears in a desperate attempt to block them out.

So many people… so many lives…

"Damn it." Takashi growls, "This is just too cruel."

"Takashi." Kohta's looks back at him.

"What?" He snaps.

"Do you think we should shoot them?" Kohta asks.

"That should be obvious!" Takashi yells, "Shoot Them-"

"Have you forgotten, Komuro?" Saeko asks, lowering the binoculars and looking at him, "They react to sounds."

She steps away from the balcony and into the room, turning off the lights, "And as for the living, they just swarm around like bugs, looking for the light. We need to stay in the dark. We're not capable of saving all the live ones out there."

I narrow my eyes at her, growling a little, "You can't be serious!" I bark, temper breaching slightly, "People are _suffering_ out there and you're so selfish, you won't even let us help a few?"

She thrust the binoculars in my face, glaring at me, "Look for yourself, Hatsune, and get used to it. We no longer live in a world where being moral and civilized works. People can't survive with noble causes alone. You and Komuro are just going to have to face it."

Takashi snatches them out of her hand, "I got the impression that you thought differently."

She stops walking, hand on the railing of the stairs. When she turns to us, her smile almost sad, "Don't misunderstand me, I'm not being cruel. I'm sorry Komuro, but this is just the way things are now. I'm not saying that I like it."

He turns, grunting a little, and heads back out.

I stay inside, not wanting to hear or see any of it, and lean against the glass.

We're losing it, our humanity. We no longer want to save people like we did at the school. Now, we're trying to keep from any others, afraid they'll drag us down with them.

It's sick, shameful, and upsetting.

If we keep this up, we'll be no better than the monsters outside, feasting on the living in order to survive.

A gunshot causes me to jump, hitting my head against the glass.

I rush outside, listening to Kohta talking to himself.

"That's what you nasty dead-beats get for trying to mess with a little girl." He says, aiming his gun, "You want something to eat, how about you munch on some of these? Ready, aim, dinner time!"

He nails another one of Them in the head, knocking it lifelessly to the grassy ground.

I actually chuckle, Takashi smirking.

"Hirano." He says, sounding amused.

"What?" Kohta barks.

"I thought you weren't going to shoot?" Takashi asks, a smug look on his face with his hands on his hips, "So we wouldn't attract any attention?"

"But it's a little girl we're talking about!" Kohta argues, turning to us, "You go get her and I'll cover you from up here."

Takashi nods, smiling.

"I'm coming." I say firmly as Takashi grabs his coat.

He shakes his head, "It's too dangerous."

"All the more reason." I answer, "Look, think of it this way. Two fighters are better than one. Besides, that little girl might not feel comfortable with you and this way, she can sit in between us on the bike so there's no chance of her falling off."

He looks back at me, eyes hard with concentration. When he sighs, I know I've got him.

"Fine." He says, still completely against it, "But don't do anything stupid, ya hear? And stay near me at all times."

I nod, grabbing my crowbar from it's perch on the bed (Kohta or Takashi must've put it there when we arrived because it was next to Takashi's bat and Rei's spear.)

We head down the stairs, running into a confused Rei and a smiling Saeko.

"Takashi?" She questions, looking at us, "Yuki?"

"We're going to help a little girl." Takashi answer, still trying to slip on his sleeve, "You stay here and guard the front with Busuji- Saeko."

"So you two are going after all." Saeko says, smiling, "The man has made his decision."

"Sorry." Takashi answers, not sounding sincere in the least, "But I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"I know that already." She says. There's a smirk in her voice as she looks back at us, wooden katana in hand, "And don't worry about this place or the girls, I'll hold down the fort."

He smiles as he turns off the light and I roll my eyes in slight bitterness.

Damn, show-offy upperclassman.

"Here, Takashi." Rei says, holding up the gun, "Take this at least."

He takes it, smiling at her thankfully.

"Just don't rely on it too much." Saeko says as I open up the door.

"Either way, the bike will make noise." Takashi says, readying the said bike.

"But on the bike you'll be moving." She chuckles a little, "Firing a shot is like ringing the dinner bell."

"Lovely image." I mutter, stepping up the slanted driveway behind Takashi.

He and I mount the bike, steadying ourselves as Rei puts up our makeshift ramp made out of random parts of wood lying around. The feel of the leather seats on my bare skin is uncomfortable, sticking to it slightly, but I ignore it at the sound of Takashi revving the engine. Wrapping my arms around him, I nod.

He nods to Rei and Saeko, who are positioned at the door with their hands on the golden handles.

We speed down the slanted path, heading towards the closed doors. Rei and Saeko nod to each other and pull the doors open, revealing a small horde of undead near it. The bike hits the makeshift ramp and (thankfully) we fly through the air, landing with a loud screech onto the pavement.

"You all right back there?" Takashi yells over the noise.

"Yep." I answer simply, trying to ignore the zombies around us.

As we ride, the zombies near us or in our way go down with a loud bang, which I suspect is Kohta, taking them out with a single bullet. We're surrounded with splashes of blood and hungry groans, but the only thing we're thinking about it that poor girl, stranded by herself.

"That must be it!" Takashi says, turning sharply, hitting another undead.

We speed in and go on one wheel. But the wheel hits an arm, flipping us backwards. We land on the stoned path, the bike crashes into the door.

Takashi groans, rubbing his head, "Nothing ever goes as planned, does it?"

I groan in agreement, noticing another knick has been added to my leg, just below the knee.

"You alright, Yuki?" He asks, standing up.

"Fine." I answer shortly, "But we've got company."

We both turn to the opened gate that's filling with the undead making their way in. Some have already made it to the little girl, limping to her with a hungry vengeance.

"Damn." Takashi cusses.

"You get the gate." I say, "I'll take care of the ones in here."

He nods and heads for the metal gate. I head towards the small girl who's crying, crouched in a corner with her hands covering her head. One's already crouching over her and I swing violently, smashing it's head in and popping it's eyes out of their sockets. Another is on my side, about to nom on my shoulder. With another quick swing, I hit it in the temple, knocking it into the wall.

"Onee-chan, behind you!" The girl cries and I turn in time to see another one trying to take a chunk out of my shoulder.

_Bang_.

The little girl and I both flinch at the sound of the gun and I turn to Takashi.

"That was a close one." He says, breathing heavily.

"You're telling me." I say, "If that thing didn't eat me, you might've shot me."

He shoots me a dry look, "Is this really the time to be kidding around?" He asks, nodding towards the gates.

The undead are desperately sticking their arms through, trying to get a hold of something – _anything_ – to eat.

"Crap." I mutter, "This doesn't look good."

"And the bike is totaled." Takashi agrees.

I sigh, looking for something else, "I hadn't expected it to get this bad."

"Never do." Takashi says, rubbing his head.

"Hey onii-chan…" The little girl pulls on Takashi's sleeve, looking down at the dead body with blood soaking the white shirt, "That man… That's my daddy."

My heart cries for the cute little girl and Takashi looks at the man with a pained expression. Grabbing a white shirt, he lays it over the man, covering his face and most of his torso. I understand what he's doing and grab a flower, plucking it just enough to leave enough stem for the little girl to hold.

Kneeling down on the opposite side of the body, across from Takashi, "He died protecting you." I hold out the flower to her, trying to keep from crying, "He was a good dad."

She blinks once, eyes welling up with tears. The second time, they fall over her cheeks and she makes her way over to Takashi's side, getting on her knees as she places the flower down.

"Da… ddy…" With those heartbreaking words, she clings to Takashi's chest, loud sobs racketing her.

I bite my lip, looking down at the deceased man.

He lets her cry for a few minutes, enough to get it out of her system, before he hushes her, "Sweetie, we need to be quiet or we'll attract more of them."

"Can't we get away?" She asks, looking up at him with innocently cute pink eyes.

"We're gonna try, honey." He answers, looking at the wall of munching, undead idiots.

"We don't have to go through the streets." She says, tugging on him, "We can go above them all."

The thought is cute, but unlikely.

Takashi sighs, leaning his head back, "How I would love to be above it all." His eyes land on the wall and widen, "Of course! We can scale the wall and walk over to them."

I breathe in sharply and Takashi understands.

I'm not the most graceful person (ask anyone, they'll tell you) and can even be classified as clumsy. More often than not, I'm the girl people expect to run into walls.

"I can do it." I say, remembering my persistence on coming, "Don't worry about me."

"Are you sure?" Takashi asks, "I know how well you walk on concrete, let alone on a wall that you have to actually balance-"

It's my turn to shoot him a dry look, "What happened to it wasn't the time for teasing?"

He shrugs, standing up, "I'll climb up there and you hand her to me, alright?"

I nod, but look at the furry white creature that'd been growling at the undead bandits.

"What about the puppy?" I ask, picking it up, "What do we do with him?"

"You can hold him." Takashi says, "Just set him on the wall before you climb up and grab him."

"Oh, yeah. Sounds easy." I mutter sarcastically, earning me a rather annoyed look from Takashi.

"Come on." He says, shaking his head.

We head over to the wall and Takashi lifts himself up on it using his arms, desperately trying not to look at the horde that's completely clueless about us. As soon as he gains his balance, he crouches down, signaling for me to put the little girl on his back.

I do, holding her up just far enough for her to clasp her hands around his neck and wrap her legs around his waist.

He nods and starts walking, giving me enough room to place the cute puppy on the wall and climb up myself.

I wobble, but manage to balance enough to bend over and pick up the small animal, heading just behind Takashi.

_Don't look down._ I chant in my head, focusing on Takashi's back, _Whatever you do, don't look down._

The puppy growls at the mass as if it can do something about it and it actually allows me to relax a little.

"A-Are you scared onii-chan?" The little girl asks Takashi.

"O-Of course not." He says, staring down at the monsters. "What about you, Yuki? Are you okay back there?"

"Uh-huh." I answer vaguely, focusing on the wall.

He chuckles, but turns to the wall, concentrating.

The puppy starts licking my cheek, turning my focus from the wall.

"Look dog, this relationship isn't going to work." I mutter, patting its head as I put one foot carefully in front of the other, "I mean, you're a dog, I look like a ghost. There's nothing we have in common."

"Please tell me you're not talking to the dog." Takashi says.

"Oh hush. I'm simply rejecting the dog before it gets attached." I answer.

He chuckles and shakes his head.

Quietly, the little girl mumbles, "I… have to pee."

Takashi stops dead in his tracks, causing me to stop as well, "Wait. Say that again."

"I have to pee."

I cover my mouth with my arm, the puppy nuzzling into my neck as I try to keep from laughing.

"Can't you hold it?" Takashi asks.

"Ummm, no."

"How about you think of something else?" He suggests, "Think about playing or your favorite TV show or-"

"O-Onii-chan, I-I can't hold it anymore!" She cries.

He sighs, defeated, "Alright." He says grudgingly, "Go ahead and do it right there. Onii-chan will forgive you."

"Are you sure?" She asks.

"I'm sure."

I laugh, clutching my stomach, "Poor you, Takashi."

"Shut up." He grumbles.

Suddenly, one of the undead accidently grabs hold of his shoe lace, pulling him over the edge.

"Shit." He hisses, kicking the woman in the face.

I finally look down, eyes widening at all of the bodies moving towards us.

"Damn it." He growls, "How are we supposed to get out of here?"

I look up at him, about to answer, but my eyes catch a glimpse of white, "Takashi! Look!"

He follows my finger and smirks.

Saeko is standing on top of the Humvee, Kohta underneath her with an aimed gun. Surprisingly, Ms. Shizuka is the one driving and, speeding up, she rams into the army of undead, smashing a good bit of them. Out of nowhere, Rei pops up.

"Takashi, Yuki, hurry up!" She orders.

"Easier said than done!" Takashi retorts.

Quickly, we make out way to the end of the wall, walking as fast as we can without falling over.

In the meantime, Saeko jumps down, taking out enough to make a path for us, "This is the last ride to the other side of the river. You two coming?"

"Of course!" Takashi says, taking a leap onto the tank-looking vehicle.

I follow suit, landing on my feet next to him.

"Are you two okay?" Rei asks.

"Fine." Takashi says, "Yuki even managed to not fall."

I roll my eyes, petting the dog's head, "I may be clumsy, but I have _some_ sort of balance."

He snickers as Takagi and Rei each lower themselves back into the Humvee.

"Hi there, I'm Kohta." Kohta says, smiling at the little girl, "What's your name?"

"Alice." She answers, smiling warming at Kohta.

As soon as Saeko jumps back on the Humvee, Ms. Shizuka speeds away, causing poor Alice to fall in the hole on top of Kohta's groin and Takashi to crash into my chest, knocking me on my back with a painful _thud_.

"Sss, Ouch." Takashi groans, lifting himself up with his arms.

"You're telling me." I mumble, propping myself up with my elbow.

My eyes widen as soon as I realize our position. His breath brushes my lips as he too realizes it.

"Uh…" He mutters, a blush spreading across his face.

I clear my throat, cursing the heat rushing to my cheeks, "I-It's okay."

"Yeah…"

"Are you two done making out?" Saeko snickers.

"W-What?" Takashi demands, face reddening further. "We weren't making out."

"Geez, Saeko, don't you know when to keep your mouth shut?" I grumble, moving to the hole on top of the roof.

She smirks before ducking in, taking a seat in the back.

I sigh, dangling my legs over the edge, and enjoy the wind blowing in my hair, Takashi sitting next to me with one leg out and the other propped up.

Somehow, we managed to escape the chaotic ally. But that only meant we survived another day. The next step was finding a way to cross the river and make sure everyone's family was safe.

The thought of seeing if Father was still alive crossed my mind, but I decided that it would better to pretend he was dead.

If he already wasn't.

* * *

**Alrightyy, so I have a problem.**

**For those of you that don't know this, I've been writing based on both the anime and the manga.**

**Unlike in the anime, in the manga, there is no Saeko and Takashi running off together in search of another way to Takagi Estate (refer to episode 9, I believe) so I've been debating on whether or not to actually write an entire chapter that was just supposed to be used as a ruse for the audience that liked TakashixSaeko.**

**Understand that either way, it'll be different. With Yuki in the picture, there are thousands of possibilities for that chapter, but at the same time, there's also a** _lot_ **of room for disaster (because of my terrible writing and describing ability).**

**Either way, change is in order. I was just warning you now that the following chapters might be a little more different than you're expecting(:**

**See you soon :D**


	8. Alice in Deadland

_ She wasn't supposed to be in the high school – she knew that. In all truth, she wasn't really sure what made her decide to slip into the gates just after the bell rang. Maybe it was her immense boredom or the annoying kids at her other school, but whatever it was, she was actually glad she did it._

_ As she wondered through the halls, she thought about what she was going to tell Hisashi is he saw her. "Sorry, I got bored and needed entertainment" didn't seem like it was going to go well with him._

_ And speak of the freaking devil._

_ Hisashi walked from first period to second with Takashi, both talking about nothing in particular._

_ "So, you wouldn't mind if I asked Rei out?" He said suddenly, surprising Takashi._

_ His eyes widened for a second before the indifferent look took over, "Do what you want." He said with a nonchalant shrug. But then something struck his memory, "What about Yuki?"_

_ He blinked, "What about her?"_

_ "Aren't you two together?" He asked, tilting his head._

_ Hisashi smiled, but shook his head, "No. Yuki and I are just friends."_

_ "Huh." Was Takashi's intelligent reply, "I could've sworn…"_

_ "That we were a couple?" Hisashi finished for him, "No. Yuki is more like my little sister than anything else."_

_ He shrugged, the indifferent look taking over his face again as he glanced down the hall. His eyes caught a flash of white and he squinted._

_ That looked a lot like…_

_ Yuki ran up the steps to the second floor, breathing heavily._

_ That was too close. Way too close._

_ She made her way up the stairs quickly, hoping to avoid running into them again._

_ The second floor was vacant, which she was grateful for. With soft strides, she headed down the hallway, glancing in classroom doors that were left open._

_ One, she came across, had a rather pristine teacher standing at the desk. But that wasn't what caught her attention._

_ An overweight boy sat in the middle of a crowd of much more mean-looking guys. His brown hair that went down to his shoulders, bangs reaching down from the side of his temples and stretching outwards, obscuring the sides of his face._

_ "So what are you going to do about it, fatty?" A boy mocked._

_ Yuki's eyes tightened. She hated idiots that picked on other kids._

_ The boy didn't say anything, just continued looking down at his desk._

_ "You might wanna be careful, Sano, he might sit on you." Another laughed._

_ And what's worse? It seemed as if the teacher, whoever he was, didn't mind._

_ Without thinking, Yuki charged in, "Excuse me." She said with a little too much force._

_ Everyone turned to her, even the teacher, and she made her way over to the boy, "I need to borrow this guy."_

_ "And what's your name, miss?" The teacher said with an innocent smile so creepy, it made Yuki's skin crawl._

_ Damn. She hadn't even thought of that._

_ "Uh…" She chose the first name that came to mind, "Saya. Saya Takagi."_

_ He eyed her, his eyes suspicious, but finally said, "What do you need this boy for?"_

_ She resisted the urge to smirk, "Because he's the only one in this classroom that looks strong enough to help me."_

_ A guy next to her scoffed, grabbing her wrist, "Listen sweetheart, if it's lifting you need, I can help you out. Don't depend on this donut."_

_ Her mouth quirked, but she resisted the urge to rip his hand away from her arm, "Listen… sweetheart," She mocked, fingers itching to get his hand off of her, "if you don't let me go, I'll have to a pancake."_

_ She said it so sweetly and so soft, it only made the guy all the more scared. Quickly, he removed he hand, letting it fall to his side._

_ "So." She continued, smiling warmly at the overweight guy, "Will you help me?"_

_ He blinked, shaking his head, and nodded, standing up._

_ "Thanks."_

_ They walked over, leaving a class full of murmuring students and a very pissed off teacher._

_ "So, who are you really?" The guy asked as they walked down the second floor hallway._

_ She looked at him, surprised, "I told you, I'm-"_

_ "I know who Takagi is." He said pointedly, "And you're not her."_

_ She smiled crookedly, impressed, "So you caught my lie, eh? Nice. Why didn't you tell them?"_

_ "Because I wanted to know what you could possibly want with me." He said._

_ "I don't like idiots." She said, eyes darkening, "And I definitely don't like assholes."_

_ "That has to do with me, how?"_

_ She sighed, turning to him with her arms crossed, "You should really learn to stick up for yourself. Don't let those damn assholes pick on you like that and sure as hell don't let that stupid teacher do it too."_

_ He stared at her, completely surprised._

_ "Yuki, by the way." She said, holding out her hand, "My name is Yuki Hatsune."_

_ "Kohta Hirano." He said, taking her hand, "I haven't seen you around before. Are you new?"_

_ "Uh… not exactly." She said, smiling sheepishly and rubbing her head, "I'm sort of a fourth year in secondary school."_

_ Kohta's eyes widened. This girl was _younger_ than him? "You're in middle school?"_

_ "Heh heh, guilty." Yuki said, still rubbing her head._

_ "Why are you here?" He asked, tilting his head._

_ "Oh you know…" She trailed off, unsure of what to tell him._

_ He shook his head, stopping her thinking process, and instead smiled, "Never mind. It doesn't matter. Thanks for helping me, by the way."_

_ She grinned, "Don't mention it."_

**Onbetsu River; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day+2 7:41 am**

"Wake up, everyone." Ms. Shizuka's voice echoes in the Humvee, "We'll get to the other side soon."

I groan, snuggling my face into something warm.

"Yuki, wake up." Takashi says.

I can hear his voice vibrating through whatever I'm sleeping on.

"Go away, Takashi." I whine, burying my face into the fabric more, "I don't wanna wake up."

He chuckles and it rocks my bed, "You act like a child in the mornings."

"Shut up." I mumble, placing my hand next to my head, eyes still close, "You're just jealous that I'm not cuddled up against you."

"Actually…" He starts, obviously not sure if he wants to finish his sentence, "You are."

"Are what?" I ask sleepily.

"Cuddled against me." He states.

"Who is?"

"Oh for Christ's sake." Rei grumbles, "You, Yuki, are clinging to him, Takashi, like you two are some newly wedded couple."

My eyes shoot open and widen as soon as I see.

Takashi and I are in the back behind the seats, lying down next to each other. Okay, so, 'next to' isn't the proper way to explain it, more like 'on'.

My head had been resting on his chest (note the reason I could practically _feel_ him talking and chucking) with one of his arms under my waist. One of my hands is wrapped about his side; the other has his shirt bawled into my fist. Our legs, somehow, got intertwined and are now laced together, my shirt riding up past my underwear.

My face heats up, "I am _so_ sorry, Takashi. I didn't mean to… I mean, I didn't know-"

He chuckles, shaking his head, "Don't worry. I think it Saeko's fault for taking up the entire back seat."

But it doesn't help the redness on my cheeks. Especially when Saeko sends me a wink.

"Come on." Takashi says, "Let's get out."

I blink, tilting my head, "Why?"

He looks out the window before eyeing me up and down, "The suns up, so I figured you might want to get dressed."

I look down, eyes widening, "Crap." I say, frantically pulling down my shirt.

Ms. Shizuka giggles, "Young love." She says dreamily.

I shoot her a slight glare that holds no malice and sigh, giving up.

Saeko and Rei open up the door on Shizuka's side and I crawl out after them, stepping out to see Takagi and Saeko looking around.

I look around as well and see that no one – living or dead – is around.

Takashi climbs out and I head to the other side of the Humvee, wrapping around the front.

"Strange, isn't it?" She says, looking around, "You'd think there'd be some form of life…"

"Yeah, whether from survivors or Them." I agree, looking around.

Takashi joins us, "I think Hirano and I are going to go check up on the road before Ms. Shizuka brings the Humvee up."

"Alright." I say, nodding, "Do you two want my help?"

"I, uh, think we're good." He says, "Don't worry about it."

I shrug, "Okay."

"Komuro, give me a hand over here." Kohta says, causing Takashi to turn around, "Let's get Alice down."

As soon as Kohta lowers her from the roof of the Humvee, Alice shoves her hands in between her legs, pushing the jean skirt she's wearing with them as well. Her face reddens as small tears form in her eyes, "Um, um, um…"

Takashi tilts his head, smiling with confusion.

"My underwear…" She mumbles, "They aren't… um…"

"Geez." Rei sighs, snatching Alice out of Kohta's hand and holding her against her chest, "You guys are so insensitive. We're going to get dressed too, so no peeking." She grabs my wrist and yanks me behind the Humvee, "You too, Yuki. Let's go."

"I'm coming, I'm coming." I grumble, "Jesus. What crawled up you?"

She shoots me a cold glare and I sigh.

Zeke, the white puppy I had saved yesterday (or this morning, I'm not really sure anymore. Time is all screwy thanks to this disease.) trots over to me, barking up at me before panting with his tongue, tail wagging.

"I thought I told you this relationship wouldn't work out?" I mumble, bending down to scratch the top of his head.

His response is a happy bark.

"He likes you." Rei says, "It seems like you and Alice are the only ones he'll let pet him."

"I'll never understand why." I say, straightening up, "So what are we changing into?"

"These!" Ms. Shizuka says, turning over a large, black duffle bag I hadn't seen in her hands, "I borrowed some of my friend's clothes, so take the ones you like."

"Kyaaaaaaa~" Is all the girls' response.

I laugh a little as Takagi bends over, picking up a beige jacket, "Can I wear this jacket?"

"Of course!" Ms. Shizuka says.

"Is this the only skirt you have?" Saeko asks, picking up a midnight blue skirt with a slit up the side.

"Sexy, right?" She giggles, picking up a pair of jean shorts, "Here, Yuki." She says, handing them to me, "With your long legs and pretty white skin, these'll look great on you."

"But, uh, I don't like things like…" I fade out as she hands me my flats on top of a fishnet undershirt with a baby blue, half shirt.

"If you need help, just ask." She smiles warmly before continuing her search.

I sigh, giving up and placing the cloth on the floor.

I slip on the shorts first, not surprised when they barely cover my butt. Heck, it's so short, the sleeves of the pockets are showing at the bottom of the legs!

Of course, Ms. Shizuka is right. Most of my height is in my legs – and the shorts look great – I'm just not fully comfortable with showing the scars trailing down them. They're not thick and a dark-ish tan color like the ones on wrists, but still, they're there.

_I hope the fishnet covers the ones on my wrists…_

With that thought, I pull off my black long-sleeve and tug the fishnet, long sleeve over my head, situating it over a black bra. When I'm sure the scars aren't very noticeable, I grab the half shirt and slip it on, groaning a little.

It's short-sleeved, so there's no more coverage than the fishnet, and only goes an inch or two away from my bust. It's not skin-tight luckily.

"Something wrong, Yu-" Takashi stops mid-sentence, eyes widening as he stares at me.

My face heats up and I look down at my hands in front of me, "It's too revealing, isn't it?" I mumble, "I knew Shizuka should've just stuck with jeans or something."

"N-No, that's n-n-not… I mean, you look… u-um…" He stutters, stepping back a little.

"Thanks." I say, running my fingers through my hair, "I think."

"Here, Yuki." Rei says, handing me a shotgun, "This should be better than a crowbar."

"But I don't know how to use it." I say, looking at the contraption in my hands.

"I can teach you!" Kohta says quickly, raising his hand, "I'd be glad to teach you."

I turn to him, "Okay, thanks."

"Heh heh, no problem." Kohta laughs, rubbing his head.

"Alright!" Takagi says, turning to us, "We're going to street the Humvee. You two go and confirm it's safe."

"Yes, ma'am!" Kohta salutes, readying his own weapon in his hands.

Takashi grabs his own shotgun and they both head up the hill. At the top, Kohta nods to Takashi, who returns it before they disappear over the hill.

A few moments later, Takashi comes back, waving for us to come up.

"Ms. Shizuka!" Rei says, looking at her as Saeko and I start heading up the stairs.

At full speed, Ms. Shizuka races up the hill, almost hitting Kohta in the process.

Takagi follows shortly behind the vehicle, her binoculars in her hands as she looks around, "I guess the river didn't stop Them, huh?"

"On the news, they said the same thing was happening everywhere." Saeko says, "I don't know why any of us thought it would be any different."

"But if the police are still functioning then maybe…" Rei trails of.

"You're right." Takagi says, smiling, "You're right. The Japanese police are hardworking."

"Y-Yeah!" Rei agrees, returning the smile.

"But where do we go now?" I ask as Ms. Shizuka comes to my side.

Takashi looks at me with a pained expression, "Hisashi's house is close to here if you want to…"

Everyone goes quiet, only the noise of Alice playing with Zeke around us.

"No." I say softly, shaking my head, "There's no point. I have nothing important there."

"What about your cellphone?" Rei asks, putting a hand on my shoulder, "You might need it…"

I shake my head again, but don't say anything.

Going there now would be too heartbreaking – I wouldn't be able to handle it.

"She can use mine whenever she wants." Takashi says, sending me an apologetic look.

I smile meekly, looking away quickly.

Takashi clears his throat, looking at Takagi, "You're house is on Higashi Hill in 2-Chrome, right?"

"That's right." She says, fairly surprised that Takashi knows that.

"Then your place is the closest." He says, his face and words hesitant, "But, um…"

"I know." Takagi says, smiling sadly, "But…"

"Of course." Takashi says, smiling. "Let's get going then."

We all nod and Ms. Shizuka jumps in the driver's seat, revving the engine. Alice, Kohta, Saeko, and Takagi file in the Humvee while Rei, Takashi, and I take seats on the roof's back edge, stretching our legs.

And then we're off, heading down the road with cherry blossoms blowing in the wind that's ruffling our hair.

Takashi is in between Rei and me, his eyes more focused on the sky.

"What's wrong?" I ask, nudging him with my elbow, "Why are you so spaced?"

He looks at me, his eyes serious, "I don't see any helicopters or planes flying around and there were so many yesterday."

This time, I follow his gaze, my eyes only seeing a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds floating around.

"But it'll be okay, right?" Rei asks.

"Yeah." He says, but adds, "Probably."

"On the bright side," I say, nudging him again. Only this time, I used the entire side of my body, "we haven't seen a single one of Them since we got here."

"You're right." He says.

"So stop being so pessimistic and enjoy the wind." I scold, smiling at him.

He returns it, "Now that's the Yuki I know."

My eyes widen, cheeks reddening, and I turn away, looking back at the sky.

The wind truly does feel amazing through my hair. It makes me forget for a few moments that the world has gone to hell and I lean my head back, eyes closed as I enjoy the feeling.

But, as does everything good, it ends.

"It's Them!" Kohta says, snatching me out of my reverie, "Distance: Front right, 300!"

"Turn right!" Takagi barks.

"O-Okay!" Ms. Shizuka says, the car swerving to the left a little.

After only a few more seconds, we see more.

"They're here too!" Kota says.

"Oh no!" Shizuka panics.

"Then turn left here! Left!" Takagi demands.

"What's going on?" I ask, looking behind us, "The closer we get to Second Chrome, the more there are!"

"There has to be a reason!" Takashi says, more to himself than me.

"Just charge right through!" Takagi demands.

"Damn." Takashi cusses, grabbing my arm and forcing me on my stomach, his body covering me, "Stay down."

Rei follows our lead, cuddling against Takashi's side.

I can hear the sound of bodies hitting the front bumper, some of them touching us. Every time I hear a _smack _or _thud_, Takashi's grip on me tightens.

"No!" Rei suddenly shouts, "Stop! Hurry and stop!"

I look ahead and notice the wire barricade.

"Christ!" Saeko yells, "There's a wire! Turn the car to the side! To the side!"

The car slides into the wire, almost knocking Rei clean off. However, the car doesn't stop, just continually going forward – towards a wall.

"Ms. Shizuka!" Takashi yells, "In front!"

Without warning the car speeds up a little and then stops suddenly, sending Rei flying off the front. Takashi tried to grab her hand, but it's too late; she's too far away.

With a painful _crack_, her back hits the bloody bumper before she does another unintentional front flip, landing on her side on the road.

"Rei!" I shriek, watching as the horde closes in.

"Stay here." Takashi says firmly before leaping off of the Humvee, landing in front of Rei. "Pull the slide… aim for the head…. And Shoot!"

_Bang_.

The gun fires, hitting three, but only killing one.

"What the hell?" Takashi growls, "I aimed at the head, but it only killed one."

"That's because you don't know what you're doing!" Kohta scolds, popping up beside me from the hole in the roof with his own gun, "The recoil will cause you to his higher than what you aim! Ready yourself, paying attention to the recoil, and aim for the chest!"

He does as Kohta says, hitting three at once.

"For each shot, you have to pull the slide and squeeze the trigger." Kohta continues, "Shift the barrel a tiny bit!"

As he does this, I watch as Kohta takes out more with his gun, not once stopping even when giving instructions to Takashi.

"Awesome!" Takashi cheers, hearing the _click_ from the lack of bullets in the gun.

"Damn it." I hiss lowly. Quickly, I peek into the whole, looking at a terrified Alice, "Hey sweetie, can you do onee-chan a favor?" I ask, smiling at her.

She looks up at me, tear brimming in her eyes.

"I need you to be strong, okay?" I say, reaching my hand in there to ruffle her hair, "If you show Kohta and Takashi you're scared, they might get scared too."

Her eyes well up with tears before she rubs them away, nodding up at me with a determined expression.

"That's my girl." I smile, "Now can you hand me that crowbar over there?"

"Mhm." She says, snatching it up from the backseat before holding it up.

"Thank you." I say, sitting up and getting over the edge.

"Yuki, you can't!" Kohta says, "There are too many to fight by hand!"

"You think I don't know that?" I say lowly, trying to keep Alice from hearing, "But the more people fighting, the better chance we have. I can't just sit by while everyone else does all the work."

Before he can stop me, I jump off, landing on my feet directly in front of a few.

"Yuki! What do you think you're doing!?" Takashi yells after me, "There're too many to fight without a gun!"

"Look," I say, taking a swing, "the next person that tells me that is going to get their face bashed in, understand? Just focus on saving Rei! I can handle myself!"

"I'll help!" Saeko says, suddenly appearing next to me with a smirk, "Can't let you fight alone."

I nod, taking the right as she starts on the left.

Takashi loses most of his bullets and looks at Rei, "I'm sorry about this." He says, snatching her gun roughly and balancing it using her chest.

"Hirano, what about this one!" He shouts.

Kohta starts shouting off instructions as another undead tried to eat my finger like a chicken fry.

"It's hopeless!" Rei cries just as I take out one about to take a chunk out of Takashi.

"Listen to me, Rei. Only idiots let themselves just die without a fight!" I say, glaring at her, "If you want to live then you better start fighting. I don't care if you're hurt, don't give up on us!"

Her eyes widen before determination sets in and she nods.

"Hatsune! Watch out!" Saeko says, taking another out.

"Thanks." I say shortly.

"The shells are by your foot!" Kohta's voice fills my ear without warning.

I look over, a little surprised to see Takagi holding Takashi's gun.

"Do you know how to use it?" Kohta asks.

"Please." She replies cockily, "I'm a genius."

I smirk, shaking my head.

She'll never change.

"Takagi!" Takashi shouts, all of our heads snapping to her.

An undead has his mouth open, ready to eat her.

Saeko and I rush over, each hitting its temple on either side of its head, spraying yellow pus all over her.

She starts shaking and I'm also worried she's going in shock, but her eyes sharpen, "I'm not shy!" She barks, filling the shotgun, "And I'm not timid! I'm not coward and I won't die! I won't let anyone die! My house is just around the corner, damn it!"

But her words are a fleeting comfort.

The fight drags on and eventually both Takashi and Takagi are out of bullets, even Kohta is running low. Saeko and I are breathing heavily, exhausted from our jumping and running around. Zeke had decided to join the fight, biting hopelessly on a zombie's ankle.

Kohta holds Alice in his hand, "Oops-a-daisy." He says, smiling at the little girl.

"Kohta?" She questions, tears in her eyes.

"You jump over the fence to the other side, okay?"

"But what about everyone else?" She asks, voice cracking.

"Everyone will be right behind you."

"That's a lie!" She cries, "Daddy gave me that same smile before he died! He said it was going to be all right, but he still died! No! No! NO! I don't want to be alone! I want to stay with Takashi-onii-chan and Yuki-onee-chan and Kohta and everyone! I want to be with everyone! Please don't leave me! Please!" She wails.

I clenched my teeth, swooping Zeke up in my hand, "If you fall out," I warn, "It's good ridden for both of us, understand?"

He barks.

"Good." I say, bring the crowbar down on another zombie head, "Then let's go!"

"Hatsune!" Saeko yells, "What are you doing!?"

"Shut up!" I shout, plunging through the crowd, "If you keep making noise they won't stop coming!"

"I see what she's doing…" Takashi breathes, "Are you crazy!?" He shouts louder.

I send him a million dollar smile, "You should know the answer to that by now! Now shut the hell up!"

A few lunge at me and I barely dodge, ramming my back and the crowbar into the cement wall, "Come on, you undead assholes." I yell, hitting the wall again, only with more force, "I'm over here!"

The crowbar rakes along the wall as I run, breathing heavily, "Over here! Come over here!"

Zeke jumps out of my shirt and dives head first into the crowd of zombies. Surprisingly, even with his loud and annoying barking, they ignore him, focusing on me instead.

"God, she really is an idiot." Takashi says, standing up and grabbing the shotgun out of Takagi's hand.

"Hey! That's my gun!" She complains.

"Sorry, but I can't let Yuki do everything on her own." He says, leaping into the crowd as well.

"Are you an idiot!" I yell as he comes to my side.

"Says the pot calling the kettle black." He retorts.

I sigh, "We don't have time for arguments!" I say, turning back to the wall, "Let's just get as many of them away as we can."

"Right." He nods shortly, bringing the shotgun back and then plowing it into the light pole.

We continuously bang on anything we can think of, but more and more are crowding around us and we have to run up a staircase, getting to higher grounds.

But still, it's not enough.

Some are still heading towards the Humvee.

"Damn it." I hiss, "What do we do?"

"I don't know." Takashi growls, hitting the railing out of frustration.

"Everybody, get down!" A voice shouts.

Takashi and I watch with surprise as a group dressed in firefighter uniforms rush to the scene, spraying the undead with a high-powered water hose.

"Help…" I breathe… "Everyone's saved…"

Takashi nods as the woman puts her foot down, allowing Takagi and Rei to crawl through.

"Are we saved?" I ask.

He looks below us where a very large crowd of undead is still limping around, "I don't think so." He says, "The situation here is still bad and I doubt more help is coming."

I nod, "Then what do we do now?"

"Come on." He says, turning, "We both know the area, so we should be okay. We'll just have to meet them at the Takagi's Estate."

"Alright." I agree, following after him.

It was weird really, despite the situation we were in, I still felt great. Because even after all the battles and all the troubles, Takashi and I were still alive.

And that wasn't going to change if I had anything to do with it.


	9. The Scars and the Dead

_ The normally shining sun was covered by thick black clouds. It was sprinkling outside the high school, leaving the white-headed adventurer with nothing to do but wonder the building._

_ It had only been two weeks since she started sneaking in the building and she was starting to get good at it._

_ The schedule for the gate was simple – it closed at exactly 7:45 and wouldn't open until a few minutes before the school let out at 3:00 – and the teachers rarely patrolled the hallways, allowing her access to anywhere she wanted to go._

_ Her main problems were the PE teachers that seemed to wonder the halls when they were on break and Hisashi._

_ Today was going to be slightly different though. Kohta Hirano, the over-weight boy she had helped two weeks ago, usually skipped a class or two to hang out with her and show her around (even if he did go back to class after an hour or so), but today he was going to some place to get a passport and visa so he could go to America over the summer._

_ So she was left alone, wondering the halls, debating on whether or not to go play in the rain._

_ In truth, she probably should've gone back to her own school, claiming to wake up late or something, and go to her classes (something she rarely did now-a-days) but the high school was so big and she still had a lot to see of it._

_ She headed down the second floor hallway, heading for the open, bridge-like hallway that connected the second floor of the main high school to the second floor of the Management Building. Before she could reach it, however, a high school student, one she hadn't seen around the grounds, stepped out of the men's room._

_ His shoulder-length auburn hair was pushed behind one of his ears, showing a series of three or four piercings running along. His uniform jacket was open, showing a yellow shirt with the words "BAD LINE" printed on it in white._

_ "What are you looking at?" He barked, narrowing his brown eyes at her._

_ "Just a bug." She replied looking pointedly at him, instantly regretting it._

_ Last night, her father had twisted her ankle when he threw her, leaving her unable to walk right, let alone fight._

_ "Did you just call me a bug, you little brat?" He spat, looking pissed._

_ Damn. How was she supposed to get out of this one?_

_ "What's wrong, boss?" Another guy said, coming out of the bathroom to join him._

_ Before she heard what he said, she shoved passed them, darting as soon as she was a few centimeters out of his reach._

_ "Come back here!" He shouted, chasing after her._

_ She cringed as her weight pressed down on her ankle each time it hit the tiled floors._

_ Curse her sharp tongue. Why didn't she ever learn to keep her mouth shut?_

_ As she rounded a corner, hands reached out and wrapped around her waist. She was pulled against something warm and hard, fabric brushing her face - a shirt, maybe?_

_ Her heart pounded in her chest._

_ Who in the world was holding her!?_

_ "Wha-"_

_ She was cut off, a hand covering her mouth as the footsteps of the bullies passed by._

_ Everything was silent as the footsteps trailed off, their voices fading away._

_ The person holding her let out a relieved breath, uncovering her mouth, "Thank god." He breathed._

_ Her eyes widened as she looked up at Takashi, baffled, "What are you… but how did you…"_

_ He looked down at her, smirking a little, "How'd I know you were here?" He finished for her, "I saw you walking the hallways." He answered, "As for your argument with Imamura, that was just by chance."_

_ "T-Thanks for saving me." Yuki smiled sheepishly up at him, "I'm sorry to cause so much trouble."_

_ "Don't worry about it." He said, releasing her with a shrug, "I was on my way to the rooftop anyway."_

_ "The rooftop?" She asked, blinking, "You can go on the rooftop here?"_

_ He laughed uneasily, "No, not really." He said, "But that doesn't mean we don't go up there."_

_ "We?" She repeated, "We who?"_

_ He looked around, "Come on. I guess I'll introduce you." He said when he noticed no one was around._

_ Yuki smiled, "Alright." She agreed, following him out onto the bridge-like hallway._

_ They entered the building and climbed about three sets of stairs before they come to a thick grey door with "No Students Are Permitted Beyond This Point" in bolded red letters. With a little bit of effort, he pushed the door open._

_ "Manda, manda!" Someone was strumming a guitar, belting out (what seemed like) random words, "Just like a poison eel, manda! Manda, manda, manda, mandaaaaaaa!"_

_ Yuki peered over the side of Takashi, noticing a boy sitting on the ground Indian-style, a guitar in his hands. His blonde hair was done in an interesting fashion – the sides slicked down while the middle was spiked in a short Mohawk – while his black blazer was left open, showing a purple checkered polo underneath._

_ "Manda, manda, manda, manda, manda, manda, mandaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" He continued bellowing._

_ Her hand covered her mouth and she laughed, interrupting another string of mandas._

_ The boy looked back at the two and tilted his head, "Oh, Komuro! Don't see you up here often during lessons."_

_ "What kind of song was that, Morita?" Takashi asked with a chuckle, sitting down next to him._

_ "It was…" He blinked, his green eyes trailing to Yuki, who had taken her seat on the other side of Takashi, "Who's she? New student?"_

_ "Yuki." Takashi answered, sending her a brief glance, "She's… uh… just visiting today. Trying to decide what high school she wants to go to and what not."_

_ Yuki gave Takashi a look of approval. The lie came out so quick, but was completely believable. She didn't think Takashi could lie, let alone lie convincingly, so she was slightly impressed. _

_ "Hey there!" The guy, Morita, grinned, "I'm Morita."_

_ "Nice to meet you." She said, returning the smile._

_ "Will I be seeing you around our Takashi a lot?" He asked, adding a hint of mischief in his grin._

_ She looked up at Takashi for the answer. Was he going to tell Hisashi about her sneaking in or would he keep it between the two of them? Even if he didn't tell, would he let her come with him again to this "secret meeting" place?_

_ "Probably." Takashi answered nonchalantly, not giving into Morita's perverted undertone, "She has a habit of getting in trouble, so maybe it'll keep her out of it."_

_ She shot him a dry look._

_ She didn't _always_ get into trouble! Just… more often than most people._

_ Morita laughed, "And you think hanging out with us is going to _lower _her risk? You do know that we're supposed to be in class right now, right?"_

_ "I wasn't talking about trouble with the teachers." Takashi said, giving her a reproachful glance, "I'm talking about trouble that involves her mouth and Imamura."_

_ Morita cringed, "I see. So she's one of those girls?"_

_ Yuki blinked, shooting the blonde a glare._

_ She was sitting right there!_

_ "More or less." Takashi answered absently, "Without the know-it-all personality and I'm-better-than-you attitude."_

_ "Aww." Morita whined comically, "I like the ones with the know-it-all personalities."_

_ She rolled her eyes._

_ He smiled, bending over his guitar to reach out his hand, "Nice to have you on board, Yuki. Don't be a stranger, got it?"_

_ She returned his smile with a warm one of her own and shook his hand, "I won't."_

**Middle of the Street, Tokonosu City; Fujimi, Japan; Z-Day+2 3:21 pm**

I breathe in rapidly, trying to keep down as Takashi and I lean against a brick wall, him peering over the corner.

"Damn it." He says, "This place too."

"I don't think we're going to be able to make it to Second Chrome like this." I say, watching him as his eyes meet mine.

"Let's go back the way we came." He suggests, getting up from the wall and heading towards the river, "We didn't see any of them on the way here."

I nod and follow after him, our pace picking up to a slow run.

"We're not going to get far on foot." Takashi says ahead of me, "So we need to look for a bike or something with the keys still in it."

"What about a Yamaya shop?" I ask, glancing around, "I thought we passed one on the way up here."

"That's it!" He says, taking a left.

We head down a narrow ally and emerge onto a blood stained road, few cars surrounding us. Down the road a little ways on my left is a Yamaya shop, motorcycles outlining the front. The cost is clear, no zombie in sight, so we run towards the shop, trying to keep out breathing as soft as possible.

The inside looks rather boring to me, but Takashi looks determined and a little lighter, happy to have something to drive. Besides the motorcycles and four-wheelers, there're shelves and racks full of leathered clothing and wet suits. Dummies are lined up against the glass showcase, dressed in biker outfits that look more uncomfortable than what _I'm_ wearing – which is saying something, considering the jean shorts that are showing too much for my comfort (damn you Shizuka!).

I run my fingers along the leather jacket, eyes drifting to a poster of an overly-buff man leaning into to kiss a gorgeous hour-glass figured girl, their lips barely touching.

"Is this supposed to be date, Takashi?" I ask jokingly. The idea seemed absurd _before_ the outbreak of zombies; now, it's impossible.

He turns to me with a questioning glance and I point to the poster. His eyes widen and he chuckles, red tinting his cheeks, "You wish, Yuk."

I stop entirely at the sound of my nickname from his mouth, staring at him with surprise.

He's never ever called me Yuk before. _Ever_.

He clears his throat, whirling around to the door he was facing before I have time to say anything. His hand tightens on his gun as he turns the knob, ready to take out anything that's inside. I do as he does, holding my crowbar in the air. Quickly, he pulls it open, inspecting the inside.

He lets out a low whistle, "Come and check this out Yuki."

I tilt my head and walk into the room, eyes widening at the Argo Avenger 700, "Nice." I say, nodding in approval.

Before all hell broke loose, the Argo Avenger was _thee _vehicle to have. Not only could it navigate on land like a truck, but it was also supposed to be able to drive in the water like a boat, only more efficient. The going rate for one was well over $30,000.

It has the body of a regular, greyish green four-wheeler. The front seat, however, is long and black, connecting the driver's seat to the passenger's seat. There are no backseats; instead, the back is like the back of a truck: open and deep for equipment and other things. There're also black poles spouting from the side of it up, like a golf cart or jeep, probably meant for siding and a roof if the owner wants one.

"Go get stuff you think we'll need." Takashi says, looking at me, "I'll get the keys and we'll go."

I nod and head back out, grabbing a hiking backpack. I pull several clothes from the shelves (absolutely _no_ leather) and some water bottles, stuffing them in the bag.

Surprisingly, I find myself smiling a little.

I'm _enjoying_ myself.

Why? How can I be enjoying this? Takashi and I are _stranded_ from the rest of the group; how is this enjoyable?

_Because Takashi and I are working together_.

I cringe at my own thoughts, mentally yelling at myself for even thinking like that.

The world's ending for God's sake! And Takashi's only a friend, dammit! Get a hold of yourself, Yuki, and grow up! Now's _definitely _not the time to act like a giggling girl!

I huff, officially peeved, as I hear an engine roar to life. Takashi and the Argo Avenger speed in front of the glass showcase and I stare completely dumbfounded. At the sight of the undead heading our way, however, I snap out of it and run out of the building, jumping into the back as Takashi speeds off.

"How did you get out?" I ask.

"There was a garage in the back of the room." He explains, "I just took it out that way."

"Nice." I say approvingly.

"Glad you approve." He mocks, smirking slightly as he takes a sharp right.

We run into a horde of Them making their ways to us, obviously attracted by the sound of the handy – but _extremely _loud – Argo Avenger.

"Please tell me you have a plan." I say, leaning down to squint at the undead looking at us with dead hunger in their lifeless eyes.

"I do, but it might get messy." He says, hitting the gas, "Hold on tight!"

I do as he says and grip the metal poles above my head with my left hand, the other gripping the back of Takashi's seat.

Takashi steers the Avenger towards a flight of stairs in between two blood-stained guardrails and we go flying down them, causing me to lift in the air for a second before I hit my butt on the floor of the trunk, groaning. Quickly (and more skillfully than I expect he can), he yanks the wheel to the right, steering us along the river bank before slamming on the brakes.

We check behind us and watch as several undead students stumble down the hill, crashing to the grassy terrain with a painful thud. However, they almost immediately get up, seemingly undeterred by the fall.

"Damn." I mutter, "I thought it'd at least slow them down."

"So the fall isn't going to matter, eh?" Takashi mumbles thoughtfully. "If that's the case…"

He steps on the gas again, speeding ahead of the group surrounding us.

"What are you doing, Takashi?" I ask, looking at him.

"This thing's amphibious." He says.

I blink, momentarily confused, "Amphibious?" I repeat dumbly.

My eyes widen as comprehension hits, but it's already too late. Takashi steers to the left and he lift into the water, splashing it all in the trunk. I lose my footing and fall backwards just as a small wave drenches me head to toe.

"Shit." Takashi says, turning around quickly, "Sorry, Yuki. Are you alrigh-"

He stops, eyes widening as he looks at me.

The black fishnet is drooping quite a bit, the baby blue shirt clinging to my chest for dear life. My black bra is _definitely_ seeable; practically _glowing_ through the blue shirt screaming "Look at me, look at me" (damn Shizuka!). My hair is sticking to my face, which is irritating, and water is dripping from the soaked, short shorts down to my water-filled vans.

"Gah! I hate you, Takashi." I grumble playfully, trying unsuccessfully to ring out the blue shirt _and_ ignore Takashi's intense stare all at the same time, "This is the second time you've gotten me wet in the past two days."

He gulps and tries to clear his throat, "Uh… yeah. I mean, yes! I-I mean, I'm sorry."

I look up and see his face is red, which automatically causes my face to heat up too and I cross my arms (conveniently covering up my exposed chest in the process), looking away, "I _am_ a girl too, you know." _Even if __**you **__don't see me as one_.

"R-Right." He mumbles, turning around and clearing his throat again, "Sorry, Yuki."

Everything falls silent as we sit in the Avenger, bobbing in the water. The zombies on the other end slowly get tired of waiting for us and some even retreat back.

Takashi leans back and lets out a sigh.

"You really shouldn't get tired so easily." I say, leaning against the neck of the passenger seat, "It's no fun if you don't have the energy to go on."

"W-What?" He stammers, looking at me with red staining his cheeks.

I roll my eyes, "Honestly, Takashi. Get your mind out of the gutter. I meant _fighting_. Yeesh."

"Oh… right." He leans back again, mumbling, "Sorry."

I chuckle and climb into the passenger seat, "So where're we going, anyway?"

He nods ahead of us and I look over at the random island of dirt in the middle of the huge lake, also known as the "Sandbar" by the neighborhood kids (which includes Takashi, Tagaki, and I).

"Nice thinking." I say, impressed.

He shrugs, "When I was a kid, mom used to tell me not to play here because the current was too strong and the water was unpredictable. I figured it could work out to our advantage."

I nod in agreement as the Avenger perches itself onto the small island, going only a few feet from the water before stopping so Takashi can climb out. I simply turn to him, legs dangling off of the edge of the seat and out of the door. The breeze is giving me goosebumps and I want to avoid any wind I can.

"It's nice to have a break." I mumble.

"Yeah." He agrees, "Let's take turns on lookout. I'll go first, so you can just relax, Yu-"

I shiver noticeable, teeth chattering.

Takashi glances at me.

"S-Sorry." I stammer, trying to hug some sort of warmth back in my body, "Y-You w-w-were saying?"

He walks over and my eyes widen as he puts his forehead to mine, a look of disapproving crossing his face, "You're freezing, Yuki." He says, almost scolding, "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"I'm f-fine." I mumble, "Just a b-bit nippy outside, is all."

He rolls his eyes, "No wonder Hisashi was always worried about you." He mutters, digging through the big backpack of stuff I had gathered earlier, "You don't worry about yourself nearly enough." He tosses me a black tank-top and shrugs off his jacket, handing it to me as well, "Here. Put this on." He orders, "I'll turn around."

I manage to snicker, though it's slightly thrown off by my chattering teeth, "Trying to sneak a peek, Takashi?"

He flicks my forehead, stunning me, "Just change."

_"Aww? Is Takashi worried about me?" A thirteen-year-old Yuki taunted, a light smirk on her face, "Well don't be. I'm fine, Takashi. You know me." Which, actually wasn't __**technically**__ true. They'd barely known each other for three months and this was only their third or fourth time hanging out alone without Hisashi or Rei with them, but still, the two had some form of underlining understanding of each other._

_ Even if this understanding wasn't completely and entirely void of secrets – on both sides. Because, despite what Takashi thought, Yuki wasn't upset that a gang of kids had attacked her with their harsh words. She was upset because __**worthless**__ and __**disgusting**__ was actually what she was, even her parents knew it, and she was afraid that Takashi or Rei or even Hisashi would figure it out too, something she didn't think she could live through._

_ Takashi rolled his eyes, something flashing in them, and flicked the snickering middle-schoolers forehead before he could stop himself. Her eyes widened and she stared at him as the familiar indifferent look consumed his face, "I don't care either way." He said nonchalantly, "But moping around isn't like you, so cheer up and do something stupid or something."_

My eyes widen before I smile warmly, "Ok. Thank you."

His eyes widen too and he clears his throat, turning around with a light dust of red on his face, "Yeah. Anytime."

I strip out of the half-shirt and fishnet, taking off the bra as well (reluctantly, I might add), and slip on the black tank top, grateful to have Takashi's jacket to cover up the scars on my wrist, which are now more pronounced thanks to the cold water.

"Okay." I announce, shuffling around in his jacket, "You can look now."

He turns around and blinks.

"What?" I ask absently, working on the buttons of his blazer.

"N-Nothing." He stammers.

I shrug, trying to ignore the heat flitting through my body at his gaze.

"Hey, Yuki, can I ask you something?" He says, looking me in the eyes this time.

I blink innocently, tilting my head, "Sure. What's up?"

"Have you ever had a boyfriend before?" He asks.

I straighten up, blinking a few more times before looking at my thighs, "That came out of nowhere." I mumble, swinging my legs a little.

"I'm just trying to make conversation." He says quickly, rubbing the back of his head, "I mean, we've been friends for almost two years now and I've never heard anything about you having a boyfriend. Someone like you… a crush at least?"

"Someone like me…" I repeat, "Should I be offended?"

"What? No!" He says quickly, waving his hands in front of him in denial, "I just meant, you know, looking the way you do…"

I know he means it as a compliment – in the only way Takashi knows how to compliment someone – but his question has my mind reeling.

Again. This is the umpteenth time Takashi has asked me something personal. It's unnerving. Don't get me wrong, it's a good sign that's interested about me, but _now_? After all of this time? Sure Hisashi is dead (which is still hard to believe) and yes, the world is being attacked by flesh-eating people who don't seem to be dead or alive, but _still_.

"Yes." I mumble finally. "Of course I've had a crush before."

"I see…" He says, voice trailing off.

"And no." I answer, "It wasn't Hisashi."

"I never-"

"It's obvious that's who you were thinking." I say, looking at him, "You're easy to read, Takashi."

He sighs, defeated, "I know."

I smile reassuringly, "It's not a bad thing."

"So you say." He mutters.

I chuckle and everything seems to fade into silence.

After a few minutes tick by, I glance over at the bank, noticing the lack of zombie presence on the sun-set lit coast.

"It looks like most of Them are gone." I say.

Takashi follows my gaze and nods, "You're right. Let's get going before something happens."

"We are we going to go?" I wonder out loud as he jumps in the driver's seat. "The sun's already setting and who knows how bad'll be at night?"

"There aren't many options around here." He says, starting up the Avenger, "Any place you have in mind?"

I bite my lip, "There's one." I say, "But neither of us is going to like it."

He looks at me, studying me for a minute before recognition hits his eyes, "Hisashi's." He breathes, sitting back in his seat as he looks at the steering wheel.

I nod, looking down at my lap, "It's the closest I can think of and the only place I know where the spare key is hidden."

Takashi's silent as he mulls it over. He looks over at me, "Can you handle it?" He asks seriously.

I take a deep breath and nod with determination, "I can." My voice is more convinced than the churning in my stomach, though.

"Then let's go." He says, cranking on the Avenger and heading off of the Sandbar.

Instead of the wading in the water, Takashi speeds out, getting us to shore and over the steps in no time flat. We crash into a few undead and as we clear the distance, more and more show up.

"Damn." I hiss, "At this rate, this thing will lead them right to us. And trust me, Hisashi's house isn't known for it's security."

"I hear ya." He says, taking a sharp left, "I guess we'll just have to get rid of them then."

I raise an eyebrow and pay attention to the road he's driving.

He makes a sharp right and we speed into the park where Hisashi and I first met. Suddenly, the wheels disconnect with the ground and there's a crash of water… and I'm soaked again.

"Argh." I growl, sending Takashi a look as water drips down my cheeks, "Do you enjoy getting me wet or something?"

"Just hand me the rope in the bag." He says, holding out his hand expectantly.

"Bossy." I mutter, which he simply chuckles at, as I rummage through the black back and pull out a fairly thick white climbing rope, handing it to him.

He goes to work quickly, tying one end of the rope to one of the black poles and the other loosely around the fountain head, giving it enough space to whirl around with the Avenger. Then, he grabs some tape and tapes the gas pedal to the floor, just to keep it from stopping.

"Lure them in with the noise." I say, "Way to go Takashi."

"Don't sound so surprised." He says, "And get ready to jump. They're about to crowd this entire fountain."

I nod and stand up. As soon as a space without many undead heading towards it comes up, we leap for it, rolling on the ground and standing up quickly.

"If we head through the east exit, it should lead us to Hisashi's house." He states, watching me for some sort of reaction. When he doesn't see any panic on my face, he continues, "And a few miles farther is the back of the Takagi's estate."

"Okay." I answer, tying my hair back, "Let's hurry up and get this over with."

"Right." He agrees, "Because of the noise, I don't want to use the gun, so we're going to have to do this hands-on."

"Alright." I agree, picking up a missing cane from the stoned grown.

"Go." He clips.

With a powerful swing, I knock an old zombie in the jaw, splattering the ground. Takashi swings at one coming at my side and we bolt down the path, doing our best to keep our footsteps as silent as we rush through the park.

"Sort of nostalgic, isn't it?" I question, getting another in the groin.

"You want to talk about the past at a time-" He hits one in the temple, "-like this?"

"We _are_ in the park that I shoved you into the fountain." I say, avoiding an undead's advance and hitting it in the back of the head, shoving it's face into the concrete.

"Yeah, but then it wasn't covered in Them trying to eat us." He smashes another into the concrete, cracking it's head open.

"Good point." I capture one against the brick wall.

As we get farther away, I notice that it's working. Instead of focusing on us and following, most of the zombies are focusing in the fountains direction, barely giving us a glance.

We take a shortcut through a small patch of woods, avoiding branches and dried leaves to keep from making noise. As soon as we emerge, Hisashi's apartment complex is right in front of us. Quickly, we head up the grated metal steps and rush into the door.

Immediately, I collapse onto the dark blue couch, breathing heavily. Takashi closes the door quietly, flipping the lock, and turns around, eyes widening.

"What a mess." He says.

I open my eyes and look around.

The beige carpet is covered in Hisashi's clothes and leftovers from the other night's all-nighter. Pop cans and small, 99 cents bags of chips and cookies scattered all over the glass coffee table in front of me. The TV stand against the wall next to the door isn't even spared of the mess, one of my bras draped over it.

I squeal and jump up, snatching it and shoving it down my shirt.

Takashi chuckles, "Did Yuki Hatsune just squeal like a girl?"

"Shut up." I mutter, feeling my face heat up.

"Go get cleaned up." He smirks, turning around, "I'll work on blocking the door."

"Do you need any help?" I ask.

"I've got it." He assures me, "Just go take a shower or something."

"Alright. If you say so~"

I head through a short, thin hallway, opening the first door on the left to a blue-tiled, off-white-walled bathroom and step inside, closing the door behind me and stripping out of the sweat blazer, tank top, and shorts.

The hot water heats my sore body at a scorching temperature, relaxing my coiled muscles. It's only then that I realize how tight I've been since we were separated from the group. My muscles feel as if they've been flexed forever, ready to fight if the time came.

I savor the feeling, taking time to scrub off the blood and dirt stains caked all over my pale skin with some unknown two-in-one shampoo that Hisashi has on the ledge above the shower head.

When I'm done, I push the knob down, shutting off the water, and step out into the steam. Quickly, I rummage through the cabinet under the porcelain sink and pull out a big, purple towel, wrapping it snuggly around me. The air outside is freezing and I rush across the hallway to my room, desperate for warm clothes.

My room is worse than the living room. Dirty clothes are scattered through the entire place, a pile in the corner (give me a break! I've been too busy fighting zombie to worry about laundry day!). Pop cans are covering my end table, surrounding my alarm clock and a big, half empty bag of Doritos is leaning against one of the end table's legs. My twin-sized bed's comforter is bundled on the floor with a long body pillow leaning against the end of the bed from where I stayed up two nights ago.

Mentally thanking God that Takashi isn't in here with me, I scoop up a pair of fuzzy Sword Art Online pajama pants lying on my bed and a matching, grey long-sleeve with a print of Kirito on it and slip them on.

When I get back to the living room, Takashi is leaning against the couch, his head back against a cushion. Across from him is the barricade of wooden chairs and dining table propped against the door.

"Nice." I compliment, sitting down next to him, "I didn't even hear a squeak."

"Thanks." He says, lifting his head up and looking up at me, "Did you enjoy your shower?"

"Yes." I answer, smiling, "The hot water felt amazing. Sorry you had to do all the work."

He shoots me a look, "Yeah right."

I laugh, "You can go take one if you want to. There might still be some hot water left."

"Nah, that's alright." He answers easily, leaning his head back against the cushion, "I'll wait a little bit."

Silence falls around us and I lift my knees under my chin, wrapping my arms around my legs and closing my eyes.

"Yuki… I've been wondering something." Takashi mumbles.

"You've been wondering a lot lately." I return, not smiling.

I can't see him, but I'm sure he rolled his eyes, "Does living with Hisashi have anything to do with your father?"

My eyes shoot open and I look at him, going completely still as my nails unconsciously dig into my legs.

"Any time someone mentions your family, you get completely rigid and you start stuttering and stumbling over your words, which isn't like you." He notes, looking into my eyes, "You said the scar on your thigh was from your father. Were there more?"

Bile builds up in my throat and my grip around my legs tighten, my heart pounding in my ears.

"You brought it up." I whisper, trying to swallow the lump in my throat, "So you can't judge me."

"I would never-"

"We'll see." I mutter, looking down at my bare feet.

"My dad, in case you didn't know, was head of the Tokonosu Clinic. He was very well-liked, but it was by all of the wrong people, like Mr. Shido's father. Of course, with his high status, there's always a dirty little secret." I gulp, tightening my grip around my legs even more, "He had a problem with drugs, particularly prescription pills, and drinking – oh how he loved his alcohol – and as he got more and more wasted, he also became angry. Angry and violent."

"He didn't…" Takashi mumbles.

I nod meekly, burying my face into my knees, "When he lost the clinic, it only got worse. He'd go on these rampages so violent, the entire house would be a complete mess. But then he realized that beating on people made him feel much better than just destroying the house. And who better to beat on than his own daughter?" Takashi just stares at me, so I take it to mean to go on, "It all cooled down when he found out the famous Souichiro Takagi's daughter went to the high school that was right next to my middle school."

"He wanted you to befriend Takagi?" He asks.

I nod, "The thought was that if Saya and I were friends, Souichiro may take note of my father and help him out. It was stupid and selfish, but that's what he thought and if it kept me from getting hit, I was all for it."

"So how did you end up living with Hisashi?" Takashi asks, looking at me.

"Hisashi had known about the abuse since I was eight when he first met me and made a deal that he wouldn't tell anyone if I agreed to learn Martial Arts with him. Around the time I was thirteen, though, things were starting to get out of control. My father was never sober and I was getting hit for simply breathing. When Hisashi found out, he offered to let me move in with him and after a couple of months, I ended up agreeing with the promise that no one would know about it."

It's eerily silent as Takashi mulls over the information and I can feel my nails break open skin.

"Why didn't you want anyone to know?" He asks, straightening himself up and meeting my gaze, "Why didn't you want Rei and I to know?"

"Because I was ashamed." I mumble, feeling the burning sensation prick my eyes, "I ran away. I left my mom there alone with him. I left her there to get hit in my place."

"You left your mom…?"

This is it. He'd hate me. He'd see just how cowardly and idiotic I am and hate me. After all, how could someone leave their own mother in the dust like that? Only someone who's truly disgusting and pathetic.

He let out a breath and I brace myself as he wraps his arms around me.

Wait… what?

I blink, "Takashi…?"

"You're such an idiot." He mutters, arms tightening, "A complete and utter idiot. Your mom abandoned you first. Where was she when you were getting beaten?"

"In her room, usually. If he was hitting me, that meant she was free…" I pull away, looking at his face, "You still don't hate me?"

"Geez, what's with you? How many times do I have to say that I'd never hate you for something that isn't your fault?" His body engulfs me, pulling me out of my ball and hugging me with more force, "You're such an idiot."

I return the hug, wrapping my arms around his ribs and burying my face in his shoulder just as the hot tears build up.

He pulls away slightly to brush away the tears and my face quickly heats up, red staining them. He leans down, his eyes never leaving mine, and I stare back at him, watching his brown eyes darken.

I can feel my heart thumping in my chest, threatening to break out, and I mentally beg that it stops.

He leans in closer and I can feel his hot breath brush against my mouth. On instinct, I close my eyes, waiting.

Takashi brushes his lips against mine lightly, testing the waters, before pressing them together more firmly, his arms pulling me against him when he realizes that I'm not going to pull away. I groan as I feel every hard line of him against me and something inside of me kicks in, causing me to snake my arms around his neck, returning the kiss.

He groans into my mouth and leans into me.

My back hits the carpeted floor and Takashi towers above me, his hands propped up on either side of my head, both of us breathing loudly.

It's like magnets. I grab his shirt in my fist and he leans down at the same time, capturing my lips with his again. They're so warm and moist, I have to keep myself from kissing him to hard, but he's not having any of that. Softly, but with plenty of demand, he bites down on my bottom lip. I groan and open my mouth, allowing his tongue to penetrate and explore as it wants.

We pull away at the sound of moans outside the door, Takashi and I both looking over at the door in one movement, breathing heavily.

"They must be wandering down the stairs from the building." I whisper, looking up at him, his palms still propping him up.

He nods and looks down at me, inspecting my face. His eyes darken noticeable as they pass over my swollen lips, "We should get some sleep." He says, but doesn't make a move to get up.

I sigh in open disappointment, "You're right. We can make our way up to Takagi's in the morning."

He chuckles and, after hovering above me for a few moments, pushes himself up, leaning against the couch, "Where do you want to sleep? Your room? I don't mind sleeping on the couch."

"Can't we both sleep in here?" I ask.

He looks at me with surprise, "Do you want to sleep in here with me?"

"W-Well, I mean, we need to be close to an exit if something happens and I'd feel safer in here with someone else rather than by myself." Rambling. I'm definitely rambling.

He blinks before laughing, "Yeah. We can both sleep in here."

I smile, ignoring the tangle of emotions in my head, and end up laughing too.

We end up falling asleep with Takashi propped against the couch and me leaning against his shoulder. Instead of some undead clawing at the door or a blood curdling scream, I wake up to the bright sun shining through a crack in the blinds.

Takashi is nowhere to be seen and the barricade he had made earlier is now gone, only the thin door protecting us from the outside.

"Takashi?" I call out groggily, standing up.

He steps out of the bathroom, running a towel through his hair, "Morning."

"Morning." I stretch out my arms, "What time is it?"

"A little past noon." He informs me.

My eyes widen, "Why didn't you wake me up?"

He shrugs easily, "I figured you hadn't gotten enough sleep for the past couple of days, so I let you sleep in."

I blush and run a hand through my hair. Well, he's right about that…

He steps into the living room and I lean against the wall, ignoring images from last night.

"So what happened to the barricade?" I ask, distracting myself as my eyes glance over at the bare door.

"I moved it when I got up." He answers, bringing out two pieces of toast, "I thought we could leave as soon as you got up so we can get there. Takagi's Estate is only about ten minutes away from here by foot, so the sooner we get there, the better."

He holds out a piece of plain toast and I grab it, thanking him, "Then do you wanna start leaving now? I'd much rather move around in my pajamas."

"Yeah. We'll leave as soon as we finish eating."

It doesn't take us long to eat and before we know it, we're already out on the streets, heading up the empty back roads.

"Gotta plan?" I ask as we head towards a small horde.

"Just one." He answers, taking one done, "Push through!"

"Got it." I clip one on the forehead, rushing past them.

Takashi's right. After taking care of the small horde, we trudge through bushes and forests, avoiding the rest of the undead wondering the streets, and arrive at the back gate to the Takagi's Estate.

"Finally." I say, breathing heavily.

Takashi wraps an arm around my waist and I automatically lean into him, "Tired?" He asks with amusement.

"Hush." I grumble.

"Onii-chan! Onee-chan!" Alice comes running towards us just as the massive iron gates open up to let us in.

Almost immediately he unlaces his arm and holds them out for Alice, who jumps into him with surprising force.

"I'm so glad you're back!" She cried into Takashi's shoulder.

"She's been worried sick." Kohta says, smiling with relief at us, "We all have."

"Thanks." I smile, "I'm sorry we worried you all."

Looking back, I knew I shouldn't have been as happy as I was. We were in the middle of a war between the living dead and the new selves we were becoming. Takashi had kissed me, but that didn't mean everything was going to be okay.

It was the calm before the storm.

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**Ahh~ That took forever to write. Sorry guys for the delay! Thanks to some harsh words and a nasty remarks, I wasn't able to find the spark I needed to write this chapter, but nonetheless, here it is! I kind of forced myself to write this chapter for you guys (which is why it might sound rushed in some parts) because you guys seemed to really like it.**

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**Anywhoo. Some little information and FAQ:**

1.) What does _onee-chan_ and _onii-chan_ mean and how do you pronounce it?

**Onee-(_oh-neh_)-chan and Onii-(_oh-knee_)-chan**

**Onee-chan is something like big sister and Onii-chan is something like big brother(:**

2.) If Yuki's father abused her, what about her mother? I doubt the other spouse would just sit by while their child is being abused.

**You'd be surprised. There are thousands of cases where the other spouse knew of the abuse and did nothing about it - whether it be out of fear or neglect is still up for debate. It's actually quite common among abuse cases.**

3.) Were you abused?

**No. I'm not abused. I've had friends who've been saved from abusive homes, but I, myself, am not abused.**

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**That's it for now! Feel free to PM (Private Message) me questions and I'll be happy to answer them (as long as they don't give away the remaining plot line). Hope to hear from you guys! Review and tell me what you think :DD**


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